Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Happiness
by alygator86
Summary: I now have a title! Starts after 3.07 Where the Boys Are and goes on from there, incorporating some things from the eps after 3.07. MerDer centered. Also CaGe, IzzieAlex, Bang, and MAddison
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the DVDs and sountracks.

Summary: Starts after 3.07 (Where the Boys Are) and goes on from there, incorporating some things from the eps after 3.07.

Rating: K+

Pairings: MerDer, CaGe, Izzie/Alex (eventually), Bang

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After breaking apart from the kiss Meredith grinned.

"Do you want to get some coffee?" he asked, smiling, brushing some of her hair back, "Because when we drink alcohol…."

Meredith giggled softly. "We could go to my house, drink coffee and talk," she suggested.

"That sounds like a great idea."

AAA

George and Izzie were standing within earshot of the kitchen. Derek and Meredith were sitting in there drinking coffee and talking about things. Real things. Childhood memory things. Laughing.

Izzie opened her cell phone and pulled George over by the stairs to call Cristina.

Cristina was almost asleep when her phone rang. She felt around for it, blindly, picked it up and answered. "What?"

"They're back together."  
"Who?"

"Meredith and Derek. They're drinking coffee and talking and she said they're starting over."

Cristina could have killed Izzie. "Seriously? You called me after midnight to tell me that McDreamy and Meredith got back together?" without waiting for Izzie's response she hung up.

Izzie hung up her phone and looked to George. "If they keep us up all night again…."

AAA

Bailey noticed Meredith's once again happy demeanor during rounds and not only suspected but knew it had something to do with a certain McDreamy neurosurgeon.

"George is off today to stay with his family since his father is here. I might regret saying this but Grey, you're with Shepard today in neuro," But then **she** had the power and Izzie was still on probation "Stevens, you're shadowing Grey. Karev, you go with Dr. Montgomery. Yang - the pit."

"The pit?" Cristina questioned after all the others scattered, why the pit?

"Can you tell me why you erased my name?" Bailey asked once again.

Cristina hesitated….she could tell Bailey and possibly hurt Burke or spend the day in the pit doing sutures. "No, I can't."

"Then you're in the pit!"

AAA

Meredith and Izzie were picking up labs for Derek's patient when they ran into Mark.

"Well hello, ladies," he greeted, "still shadowing, Dr. Stevens?"

"Hey, yeah I am," Izzie replied with a smile like always.

"Hi," Meredith said less than enthusiastically.

"Oh what's gotten into you today, Dr. Grey?" Sloan asked smiling, "Or what hasn't? Think I could help you out with that?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, "If you want to be friends with him again maybe you shouldn't try stealing his girlfriend AND breaking rule number one."

Mark raised an eyebrow, "Girlfriend? I thought you were taking some space."

"Technically that's breaking rule number two," She grabbed the labs and started leaving with Izzie, "Stop breaking the rules."

Once they were out of earshot Izzie asked, "There's rules? With Sloan? What for?"

AAA

"Bailey, I need Cristina for a surgery this afternoon," Burke said, coming up to Miranda at the second floor nurses station.

"She is my intern and I told her to cover the pit today, Dr. Burke. And since she wont tell me why she erased my name from the board she does not get in on ANY surgeries"

"She's just covering the pit today and Stevens is on probation. I need an intern and she is available." He put his hands on his hips and gave her the Dr. Burke look

Knowing she'd get the truth eventually and with these interns they'd all know why soon she gave in - for now. She gave him her Bailey evil eye "Fine."

George, overhearing that and knowing what was wrong, said to himself. "I have to do something"

He went looking for Derek who happened to be in surgery with Meredith. Izzie was in the gallery watching. George sat with her.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I need to talk to Shepherd" George replied, "And my brothers were driving me nuts."

"What do you need to talk to him about?"

"Just stuff."

"Ok. How's your dad?" she asked.

"We're still waiting for the labs to come back but Callie gave him some more morphine for the pain."

"Oh yeah, his clavicle," she remembered. "How are you and Callie doing anyway?"

"She broke up with me but she's hanging out with my brothers," he shrugged, "It's a little weird."

AAA

Addison walked into the patient's room to find more people that she expected with her intern. "Hi, I'm Dr. Addison Montgomery. What do we have Dr. Karev?"

Alex turned to her, "Casey Linden, 28. She's 30 weeks pregnant, stared showing signs of preterm labor during the rehearsal dinner."

Casey smiled, her fiancée at her side, "I'm getting married in two days."

"Which explains all the people," Addison smiled, looking from Casey and her fiancée to the 3 other apparent family members. "We're going to start you on some medication to stop the labor and I want to keep you here maybe over night for observation."

"But she'll be ok?" a woman who seemed to be her mother asked.

"Absolutely."

AAA

Derek and Meredith where standing at the sinks scrubbing out.

Derek smiled "Good work Dr. Grey."

Grinning, Meredith replied, "Thank you, Dr. Shepherd."

Derek finished up, dried his arms and hands and left the scrub room followed shortly by Meredith. George spotted him.

"Dr. Shepherd, can I talk to you?"

Derek and Meredith turned around, Izzie caught up with the small group.

"Sure, what is it?" asked Derek.

George shifted a little uncomfortably. "Um…privately?"

"No problem," he turned to Meredith and Izzie "Can you two start with post op"

"Yeah," Replied Meredith.

"Sure," Izzie said at the same time.

The girls left and Derek crossed his arms, leaning against the wall "What did you want to talk about."

"It's about Dr. Burke's hand…"

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End part one

**I'm going to have a contest for giving this fic a title. Whoever suggests a title I can use will get a next few parts before I post them on here. **

Read, love, review, repeat.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the DVDs and sountracks.

Summary: Starts after 3.07 (Where the Boys Are) and goes on from there, incorporating some things from the eps after 3.07.

Rating: K+

Pairings: MerDer, CaGe, Izzie/Alex (eventually), Bang

**I still need a title for this fic so any suggestions would be great and if I use a suggestion the person who gave it will get the next few parts before I post them. Thanks!**

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"It's about Dr. Burke's hand…"

"I'm listening," his surprise and concern showing – Burke was having problems with his hand?

He wasn't sure he should be telling but it could be dangerous in surgery. "When we were fishing I saw his hand shaking but he said it was nothing… and Cristina has been in on all of his surgeries. At first I thought it was because of…I think she's covering for him. She didn't even take credit for decanulating the heart… and I don't even know if I should be the one telling you but I was worried."

"No, no, thank you for telling me. Burke should have told me when they first started happening. You did a good thing," he said reassuringly.

"Can you fix it?"

"I should be able to," he smiled, "Don't worry. I'll talk to Burke."

"Ok. I've got to go back now..." he headed back down to where his family was.

AAA

Derek found Burke working on charts in an empty conference room. He went in and closed the door.

"We need to talk, Burke," Derek said.

Burke looked up, "What about, Shepherd?"

Derek sat in a chair adjacent to Burke, "I was told that you have hand tremors."

Burke did his best 'I don't know what you're talking about' look, "I don't know who told you but my hand is just fine."

Derek studied him for a second. "He seemed quite worried about you. If there's something you need to tell me…"

Burke could feel his hand was about to tremor again and tried to end the conversation. "There is nothing I need to tell you."

Derek sat back in the chair. If it's been enough to need Cristina in all of his surgeries it would pop up soon enough. Burke cleared his throat and tried, inconspicuously, to flex his hand but that didn't help as his hand tremored for Derek to witness.

AAA

Meredith and Izzie answered Derek's page and were surprised to see Burke sitting on the exam table.

"How long have you been having the tremors?" the girls heard him ask as they came in. Derek was examining Burke's shoulder.

"Since after the surgery," Burke replied.

Derek looked at him a little suspiciously, "how long after the surgery?"

"A few hours," he almost looked guilty.

"What's going on?" Meredith asked looking from Derek to Burke.

"Dr. Burke has hand tremors. I think it has something to do with the nerves in his shoulder and we need to run some tests. I don't think it could be another aneurism."

"Hand tremors?" Izzie asked, "But you cleared him for surgery."

"He didn't tell me about them," Derek countered.

Meredith shook her head slightly, "What do you need us to do?"

"Get a shoulder CT and an MRI so I can rule out any problems in his brain."

"What are you going to tell the chief?" asked Burke.

Derek wrote on the chart he started, "The truth."

"Should we tell Cristina?" Izzie asked.

Burke took a deep breath, "She knows about it. All you would need to tell her is that we won't be performing surgery today."

AAA

Addison entered the room with a smile, "Well we got the labor to stop on your baby and everything is fine but I want to keep you here over night for observation just to be sure," She noticed there was only one other man in the room with her, "where did everyone else go?"

"I sent my fiancée to calm the troops at home and my mom and sister are going to make sure everything is going to run smoothly on Saturday," Casey told her.

"I decided to stay with her and I get to report back to everyone," the man explained. "I'm her cousin Steve."

"It's nice to meet you."

"You too. Say…do you know _all_ of the surgeons here?"

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End part two

Read, love, review, repeat. The more reviews, the faster I put up new chapters :D


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Shonda still owns GA and I don't.

Thank you all for your reviews :D

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Meredith and Izzie stood at the nurse's station working on charts. Meredith had taken Burke for a CT and an MRI and he did not want to be pushed in a wheelchair. It was a little weird walking with a…patient to get those tests. During that time Izzie talked to Cristina and told her what was going on.

"What did Cristina say when you told her about Burke?" Meredith asked.

"She didn't seem surprised and she wanted us to page her when we know more," Izzie told her.

Derek saw and went to talk to Meredith and Izzie.

"Dr. Shepherd, did you get the tests back yet?" Izzie asked as she saw him approach.

"Not yet. The chief is talking to Dr. Burke right now," he leaned against the station next to Meredith.

"It's not your fault," She told him.

"I was distracted when I checked his arm," he told them.

"Did he tell you about the tremors when you were checking him?" Izzie asked.

"No."

"It's not your fault," Meredith told him again, "What do you think is wrong?"

"I'm pretty sure it's a compression of the nerves around the injury."

Izzie checked her watch, "I'm going to check and see if the labs are done."

As Izzie left Steve walked down the hall and noticed Meredith standing with a very good looking man.

Derek smiled at Meredith. It was hard for him not to. "Are we sleeping at your house again tonight?"

Meredith was about to answer when she heard her old nickname.

Steve stopped about ten feet away from the couple, smiled, and said "Hey, Little Moose."

Meredith turned and saw her old friend. "Steve?!" she ran over to him and flung her arms around his neck. "How are you?"

"I'm good. How are you?" he asked, hugging back.

She pulled back to look at him, a huge smile on her face, "I am great."

Steve looked over at Derek who was getting a little jealous. "Is that McDreamy?"

Derek raised an eyebrow; someone he didn't know and didn't even work at the hospital was referring to him as 'McDreamy'. And Meredith knew him. He called her 'Little Moose'.

"Yes," Meredith replied and took Steve's hand pulling him over to Derek. "Derek this is my friend from college, Steve Collins. Steve this is my boyfriend, Derek Shepherd."

Steve held out his hand and Derek shook it. "I heard a lot about you before Meredith was too good to email me anymore."

"Not too good, just too busy," she corrected.

"Well it's nice to meet you," Derek told him, smiling at the fact the Meredith referred to him as her boyfriend.

"What are you doing here?" Meredith asked, "And how did you even find me?"

"My cousin is getting married this weekend so I'm here for the wedding."

Meredith interrupted, "Jamie?"

"No, Casey. Other side of the family – you don't know her. Anyway she went into premature labor at the rehearsal dinner. The doctor stopped it and she's keeping Case here overnight. And her intern today… Dr. Karev. Very good looking man."

"Alex? Not on your side, sorry."

"That's alright. Anyway I asked the red headed doctor with the wonderful outfit -"

"Addison?" Meredith interrupted again.

"Yes! That's it! I thought maybe it was Madison. Anyway I asked if she knew a surgeon by the name is Meredith Grey and if I could find her here. She told me where to look. And now I've found my little moose."

"Why do you call her little moose?" Derek asked.

"The first time we met she was wearing a cute little beanie with antlers and I thought she looked like a little moose," explained Steve.

Cristina came up to the small group "Who is a little moose?"

Derek smiled, "Meredith is."

"Hi," Steve said, "You must be Cristina."

Cristina looked from Steve to Meredith then back, "Um yes...you are?"

"Steve, Meredith's friend from college," he held his hand out for Cristina to shake.

She shook his hand, "Cristina Yang."

Izzie got back with the CT and MRI results. "Hey," she gave the results to Derek.

While Derek looked at the scans Meredith introduced Izzie and Steve.

"Well I met Alex earlier so I just have George left now."

Bailey came up to the group as she was passing by. "What are you all doing standing around? That is not what you are here for, its not social hour people! Get to work!"

After Bailey was out of ear shot Steve looked at the girls, "And that must be the Nazi."

"You are right," Izzie replied.

Cristina's pager went off, "Damn. I gotta go back down to the pit," she said before heading back down there.

Derek had finished checking out the scans, "Nothing in his head so it's just the nerves."

Steve was ADD at times. "McDreamy, how do you get your hair so...perfect? Do you use any product?"

They were talking about his hair now? "Um no I don't use anything."

"Dr. Shepherd's hair is just naturally perfect," Izzie supplied with a smile.

"That is amazing," Steve said in awe, "Can I touch it?"

This was just a little weird for Derek. "Maybe later, I need to check on my patient."

"That means we have to go too," Meredith told him with a small frown.

"I should get back to Casey. Little Moose, I'm going to be in town for a couple days after the wedding. We should do something."

"Oh!" Izzie exclaimed, "I could make us a group dinner, Meredith! You, Derek, Me, George, Steve, maybe Alex, Cristina and Burke if they can to come."

"That sounds like fun," Steve smiled, "I would love it."

"That does," Meredith agreed and told him while starting to follow Derek with Izzie, "And we all have Sunday night off. I will stop by your cousin's room later and give you my number."

"See ya later," he headed back to Casey's room while Meredith and Izzie followed Derek to Burke's room.

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End part 3

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	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I almost own season 1 – I'm getting it for Christmas on DVD

I have a title! Yaaaaaay!!

So I like to have my fics finished before I post them. This one isn't finished yet and as of this moment it is 37 pages in word. I can't tell you what going to happen but if anyone has any suggestion for things TO happen I will try and incorporate them. I'm always open for ideas.

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"Well you're going to need to do surgery again but I can relieve the compression of the nerves," Derek reported to Burke.

"The chief suspended me for three weeks after my medical leave," Burke replied.

"What about Cristina?" Izzie asked, Cristina had to have known and she was helping him so much and she wasn't surprised when she was told about the tremor.

"I told him I asked Cristina to help me. He's going to talk to her but she won't get in any trouble."

"When are you doing the surgery?" Meredith asked Derek. She was standing next to Izzie across the bed from Derek.

Derek had been checking Burke's chart, he looked up at her. "Today. Both of you are scrubbing in."

Izzie almost choked, "Both of us? But Bailey said…"

"I know what Bailey said but we're going to need to do the surgery awake so we can make sure I fix what needs to be fixed. I'm going to need you both to help me and Dr. Burke," Derek explained.

"Just a local anesthesia," Burke added, not too happy about it.

"That's right," Derek looked at Burke then to Izzie and Meredith, "Please book an OR and then Meredith, you can go up and visit with your friend."

"Can I go too?" Izzie asked, more of Meredith than Derek.

Meredith nodded.

"I'll page for pre op or if I need either of you before then."

AAA

Addison, hearing a lot of laughter, entered her patient's room. Casey was sitting in bed, Steve sitting in the chair by her side, Meredith on the end of Casey's bed and Izzie in another chair near Meredith.

"Meredith, I really want to touch your boyfriend's hair. It looks so perfect," Steve chuckled.

"You are so weird," Casey stated lovingly.

"His hair is really soft," Meredith offered, "And I like the stubble."

Steve nodded. "Oh yeah, it gives him a rugged sexy look."

"Dr. Grey, Dr. Stevens. I didn't know either of you were helping with my service today."

Izzie and Meredith had been hanging out with Casey and Steve for almost half an hour and Meredith told the abridged version of what happened between her and Derek including Addison, Mark and Finn.

Meredith jumped up, "Dr. Montgomery!"

Steve spoke. "Little Moose and Pixie," Pixie was his new nickname for Izzie, "were just visiting with us for a little while."

Addison raised an eyebrow, "Little Moose and Pixie?"

"Um Steve and I were friends in college and Little Moose was my nickname," Meredith told her a little embarrassed.

"And he just gave me the nickname of Pixie," added Izzie who had also stood at the surprise appearance of Addison.

"She's tall and skinny like a pixie stick," Casey told Addison Steve's reasoning for Izzie's nickname.

Addison nodded, "Whose service are you on today?"

"Der….Dr. Shepherd's. He knows we're here," Meredith replied, "He said he'd page when he needed us. The only thing we have today is Dr. Burke's surgery."

"Ok." There wasn't really anything she could do. They didn't have a patient to check up on because if they only had Dr. Burke Derek was most likely with him and if anyone else came in they would be paged. She smiled, "Well, Little Moose, Pixie don't stay too long. Casey needs her rest," And with that she left.

After Addison left Meredith sat down again giggling slightly. "See?" She asked, "She's really hard to hate."

"Defiantly," Casey agreed. "If someone slept with my husband and I worked with her? I'd make her life hell."

"She defended me to a woman whose husband had cheated on her. The woman thought I was the one in the wrong but Addison actually told her she cheated on Derek."

"Really??" Steve asked, his eyes wide in an unbelieving way.

Meredith nodded. "It was a little weird."

Izzie sat forward. "Tell them about the time she jujued you!"

AAA

George went up to the nursery. His father had cancer that had spread and he needed surgery. He loved his father and wanted to be with him but his brothers were driving him crazy. They just didn't understand him and Callie had been getting along really well with his brothers, which was weird as well. He went up to watch the babies and try to relax.

"Hey," Callie said, coming to stand next to him.

"Hey," he replied. After a few moments of silence he asked, "I thought you broke up with me."

"I made a mistake. I'm not ready to let go," she said. They were both looking at the babies.

George finally looked at her. "I'm sorry I was so preoccupied with Meredith and Izzie. Izzie was going through a hard time…"

"No, no. They're your best friends. They're your family. I get it. I just got frustrated…" she tried to hide her little embarrassed smile, "and jealous."

"You slept with Sloan," he said, looking back at the babies, "Alex told me."

"I really wish I didn't," she groaned.

"Technically we were broken up," he offered, "And I really don't want to think about anyone with Sloan."

She laughed nervously, "You and me both."

They stood in silence again.

"Do you want to go out again sometime?" George asked, "Not tonight. I'd like to go out tonight but my dad…. When he's better?"

Callie smiled, "I would like that."

AAA

The day was finally over. Meredith was getting changed in the locker room, she yawned. The surgery on Burke took a little longer than expected but his hand will be back to normal. Cristina was in the gallery the entire time watching like a hawk. Unfortunately for Burke he will be out for a couple weeks to recover then a few more weeks after that for suspension – a total time out of five weeks.

Cristina was hanging out in his room but thankfully they could both come to the now big dinner Sunday night with Steve.

Meredith was still embarrassed that Addison had found out about her nick name 'Little Moose'. She liked Addison alright but she just didn't want her boyfriend's ex-wife knowing a nickname like that.

Izzie ran into Derek in the hallway on her way to the locker room. "Dr. Shepherd, thank you so much for letting me scrub in after...everything."

He smiled, "You're welcome. Personally I think its best to get back up on the horse instead of ignoring it," he told her, not really happy about what Bailey had her doing but he understood why.

Meredith almost ran into Izzie as she was leaving the locker room and Izzie was going in.

"Izzie, do you know if George is coming home tonight?" she asked.

"He said he would later, Callie was going to give him a ride. I'm going grocery shopping, do you need anything?"

"Nope, everything I need is on the list."

Izzie grinned, "Are you and McDreamy going home?"

"Yes," Meredith replied, she couldn't help but smile then insisted. "But we're just going to watch a movie or something."

Izzie laughed a little, "I'll see you later."

Meredith left the locker room and Izzie went in. Derek pushed off the wall he was leaning against and walked with her.

"So what movie are we watching?" he asked with a smile.

She looped her arm around his and rested her head against his shoulder as they walked. "I don't know."

"Maybe we could go to sleep," he kissed the top of her head.

"I like sleep. Sleeping is a good thing."

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End part 4

The next part will have the dinner in it :)

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	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own anything I want to own  lol.

Enjoy this chapter :D

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Sunday came not soon enough and too soon depending on who you were. Not that it was a bad thing.

George's dad got the surgery to remove as much of the tumor they could and he would be starting chemotherapy very soon.

Burke was discharged Saturday evening and in a week he was to being his rehab on his shoulder and hand. Cristina was doing her best supportive girlfriend and it was hard but she was doing it pretty well. The only ones who couldn't be there were Alex and Callie.

Everyone was seated around the table, Meredith was between Steve and Derek. Izzie made sausage, mashed potatoes, and green beans and it was going over very well.

"Mer, is your drink of choice still tequila?" Steve asked.

Meredith cut some sausage. "Yes and don't you dare," she tried to threaten him.

"Don't what?" Cristina questioned.

Derek looked over at Steve, "Do you have an embarrassing story about Meredith?"

"Involving tequila," Izzie guessed grinning.

"You are correct, Pixie," smiled Steve, "It's actually about the first time Mer had tequila."

"I have a feeling this isn't about you taking advantage of anyone," Derek said.

Meredith giggled slightly, "No, I only take advantage of you."

"Good to know," he replied with a smirk.

Steve continued, "Now at the time Meredith had told me she'd been drunk tons of times before but she'd never had tequila. Only the part about the tequila was true. I do have to say I was amazed how she could drink it straight. But after 3 or 4 shots Little Moose went all Coyote Ugly in the bar."

The girls started laughing

"Coyote Ugly?" Burke asked before Derek or George could.

"I was dancing on the bar," replied Meredith not as embarrassed as she thought she would be.

George's eyes widened.

"_On_ the bar?" Derek asked amused.

Meredith nodded. "I think there were pictures."

"There still are pictures," Steve told her, "and I know exactly where they are at home." At Meredith's quiet groan he added, "Maybe I should email them to your boyfriend."

"I'll take embarrassing pictures of Mer," Cristina offered.

Meredith sipped her water, "I don't know how embarrassing they are…I can't remember them."

"It's always been my theory that if there's proof of you doing something you don't remember its embarrassing 99 of the time," Burke offered.

Izzie nodded, "That is very true."

The rest of dinner and a couple hours afterwards was spent telling stories, catching up and the others getting to know Steve.

"You have to go now?" Meredith frowned. Cristina and Burke had gone home an hour earlier; George and Derek were watching TV and Izzie was cleaning.

Steve nodded, sad that he had to leave, "I have a flight in the morning. You have to email me more often," he poked her shoulder

"I will." She smiled.

"And invite me to your wedding," he teased.

Meredith laughed, "I'm not getting married."

"Not yet but you will. Keep him, Mer," He told her seriously, "The way he looks at you…he's completely in love with you."

Meredith just smiled.

"I will miss you, Little Moose," Steve hugged her.

She returned the hug, "I'll miss you, too."

"Bye George, bye McDreamy," he called out to the guys, "It was nice meeting you."

Meredith giggled at Steve calling Derek 'McDreamy'.

"Bye, nice meeting you too," George called back

At the same time came Derek's reply, "Goodbye, same here."

And he left. Meredith closed the door and headed over to the couch. She stood next to Derek looking at the TV. He and George were watching the discovery channel. He took her hand and pulled her down next to him.

She smiled at him. "Did you want me to sit down?"

He returned her smile with his McDreamy smile and said, "yes," before kissing her softly. She returned the kiss but before she could deepen it George cleared his throat. Meredith pulled back slowly then took Derek's hand and stood up, pulling him with her and heading upstairs.

AAA

Two weeks into Burke's medical leave Cristina got home from work and found him laying on the couch with his little hand exercise ball. Two weeks meant the suspension started soon. He wouldn't be going back to work until after the new year.

"Hey," she greeted, putting her keys on the table by the door.

He didn't reply and she knew he was awake. He was just laying there.

"Burke? What's up?" She sat on the table in front of the couch.

"I could have gotten Chief," he said quietly after a couple minutes.

"What?"

"When I talked to Webber he said he was considering me for Chief a couple hours before he found out about my hand. But now he isn't as sure because I didn't tell him – or anyone – about my hand."

"Burke…" she whispered.

"And it's not even my fault," he finally looked at her,

She sat up straight getting defensive, "What does what mean?"

"You made us a team, you told Shepherd I was fine, you said nobody has to know."

"I did what you needed me to do!" she exclaimed, standing up and moving around, "You were standing there telling me your whole life was your hands, that you couldn't be Preston Burke if you couldn't operate! I made us a team to help you."

"That was your concern, not mine!" He sat up.

"Oh no. No, you put that on me. I…I had to perform surgeries most fifth years don't do - don't even think of doing. I walked away after you were shot, I know that. But I stuck. Don't hold that one mistake against me," she pointed her finger at him then herself, "We are a team."

"There is no team, we are not a team! There is me, once again, making allowances for your emotional shortcomings! No team."

Cristina looked as though he had killed a puppy she actually cared about. She didn't say anything but went into the bed room and grabbed her duffle bag stuffing her clothes into it.

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Where is Cristina going to go? Will they make up? Review and find out. The more reviews I get the faster I'll put up the next part.

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	6. Chapter 6

Six reviews! Yaaaay! I couldn't think of a witty disclaimer so I'll just yay about the reviews. Yaaaaay!

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Derek answered the door, surprised to see Cristina, wet from the early December rain. "Cristina. What are you doing here?"

Cristina was obviously upset, "I need to talk to Meredith."

"Yeah, come in," he let her in and shut the door behind her, "She's up - " Before he could finish Cristina dropped her bag and ran up to Meredith's room.

Meredith had just finished getting changed when Cristina burst into her room.

"Cristina, what's wrong?" Meredith asked concerned.

"Do you have any tequila?" she asked, "Any alcohol at all?"

"Yeah, downstairs in the kitchen. What's wrong?" Meredith repeated the question.

Cristina took Meredith's hand and pulled her out of the room and downstairs, "Alcohol first, talking later."

She let go of Meredith's hand as they got to the kitchen.

"It's in the fridge," Meredith told her, confused as to what was going on with her best friend.

Cristina bumped Derek out of the way to grab the bottle of tequila out of the fridge. Derek gave Meredith a look asking her what was going on. Meredith shook her head and shrugged as Cristina took a couple swigs.

"Now will you tell me what's wrong?" Meredith asked reaching for the bottle - it was tequila after all - and took a drink.

"We had a fight. A big fight," Cristina told her, "I hate men." Derek took the opportunity to leave since it was going to end up being girl talk and, as Cristina said, she hated men.

"A fight? What happened?"

Cristina recapped the fight for Meredith drinking tequila between sentences. Meredith didn't drink as much, just a few sips here and there.

"Not to defend him but I think he's just stressed out about being suspended and that he possibility he won't be chief," she said when Cristina was done, "But he shouldn't have said that to you."

"So do you think I could stay with you, Mer?" she asked, "I mean, he didn't ask me to leave but I just couldn't stay there. Not tonight."

"Of course. You're going to have to camp out on the couch..."

"That's fine. Thank you."

"No problem. I'll go get you some blankets."

Cristina put the bottle of tequila back and followed Meredith out of the kitchen, going to sit on the couch as Meredith went upstairs to get a pillow and blankets. She went to her room to get the items.

Derek was sitting on the bed leaning against the headboard, "Is she ok?"

Meredith went into the closet looking for extra blankets, "They had a bad fight and Cristina is going to stay here for a little while."

"You know, if Alex Karev comes and camps out here too Bailey could just come here to give you assignments," he told her jokingly.

She laughed a little and grabbed a couple blankets from the top shelf and a pillow from the corner, "I think the only one who would want Alex here is Izzie. I'll be right back."

Meredith ran downstairs and gave Cristina the pillow and blankets and made sure she was ok before heading back upstairs.

She got into bed with Derek and they both laid on their sides looking at each other. He ran his fingers through her hair and just looked at her. After a moment he smiled.

Meredith smiled a little self-consciously."What?" she asked.

He ran a finger down her cheek, "I love you."

"I love you, too," she replied, her smile getting bigger.

AAA

(2nd week of December for a point of reference)

A week later Cristina and Burke still weren't talking. A few days after Cristina went to stay at Meredith's house she went to their apartment to pick up a few things. He didn't speak to her so she didn't speak to him. Meredith had started looking through catalogues with Derek to help him pick out presents for his family.

"Cristina, are you sure you're ok on the couch?" George asked, "I'll switch with you for a couple nights."

"No, George. I'm fine."

"Do you need anything?" Meredith asked, popping her head into the living room.

"No."

"Ok, goodnight guys," She went up stairs and into her room.

The first thing Derek said when she got there was, "How would you like to go to New York for Christmas?" he was laying on the bed

She smiled, "What?"

"My sister Sarah called today with orders from mom to tell me to come to New York for Christmas since I didn't go last year. And mom and the other three sisters heard about you from Nancy and they want to meet you," he explained, "So, how would you like to go to New York for Christmas?"

Meredith sat on the bed, "But Nancy hates me."

"She doesn't hate you she just…doesn't know you," he pulled her over to him.

"Even if I say I'll go, how will I get the time off?" she asked, lying perpendicular to him, her head on his stomach.

He grinned, "I talked to Bailey and it will only be three to four days at the most."

"Tell me about your family."

He was expecting that and had thought it all out and was prepared, "Ok. My mom was a teacher, she's been retired for a long time now. My dad was a pediatrician. He died when I was 10, he had a heart attack. I'm the middle child. Kathleen is the oldest, then Nancy. After me is Sarah and the youngest is Natalie.

"Kathleen is a psychiatrist and her husband Jeremy is a high school teacher. They have two kids. Aaron is 18 and Jessica is 14.

"Nancy is an OB/GYN and Brad is an architect. They have three girls – Eve is 17, Kaylie is 12, and Abby is 9.

"Sarah is married to a vet named Tom. Sarah is a stay at home mom and has the most kids. She has two boys and three girls: Ben is 16, Madeline is 13, Sophie is 10, Chris is 8 and Katie is 5.

"Finally are Natalie and her husband Nathan. Nat is an elementary school teacher and Nathan is a dentist. They have some sort of thing with the letter 'N' and their kids are Nolan who is 10, Nicole is 7, and the 3 year old twins Nathaniel, or Nate, and Nadia."

When he finished Meredith giggled a little, "How long did it take for you to get all the names and ages straight?"

"Just about all day," he chuckled, running his fingers through her hair.

"Ok," she smiled.

"Ok?" he asked for specification.

"I'll go."

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	7. Chapter 7

So this part is longer than the others but it's cool. Enjoy!

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The next day Meredith took her tray and sat at the table with Cristina, Izzie, George and Derek.

"McSteamy is evil," she stated as she sat down between Derek and Cristina. "No…not evil. He's the thing that tries to tempt you to the evil. With his offering to get drinks and McSteamy face which I told him I'm immune to and sexual innuendos. He acts like it would be sooo hard for me to say no to him. And it's not like he doesn't know I have a boyfriend."

"I know!" Izzie exclaimed, "When I was shadowing Alex he was all I didn't know it was bring a hot blond to work day. Like I would be like oh yes, I want you!"

"I thought Addison was Satan," Cristina piped in, "but the woman who won't give birth is. Addison is nice and it's weird. She says 'please' and 'thank you' and asks how I am. The woman who won't give birth is just pissing me off."

"I'm just standing off to the side and watching. Again," said Izzie before taking a bite of her sandwich, "Candy striping."

The girls looked at George. Derek didn't really know how to respond to all the ranting.

George looked around at Izzie, Cristina, and Meredith. "I don't have anything to complain about…" At their glares he continued, "But the vending machine ate my money and the line for CT was so long."

Izzie looked at Derek, "What about you? Do you have anything to rant about?"

"Lunch is sometimes a therapy session," George told him.

"Besides Mark being Mark and hitting on my girlfriend, I'm having a pretty good day," he told them.

After swallowing her food Meredith remembered, "Oh! Derek and I are going to New York for Christmas to meet his family."

"Family?" Cristina asked.

"New York?" asked Izzie at the same time.

Mer nodded, "His family is pretty big."

"Four sisters all married, 14 nieces and nephews, and my mom," Derek supplied.

"23 family members?" George was amazed, "4 sisters? I thought it was bad with two brothers."

"Oh you're going to meet his mother?" Cristina said, "Good luck with that."

"What does that mean?" Meredith asked.

Cristina unscrewed the cap of her water, "They tend to be control freaks that mess with your mind."

Derek chuckled, "My mom isn't like Burke's."

"That's good," Meredith commented, finished with her lunch. She looked around the table again, "Derek is also going to start building a house on his land."

"Seriously?" Izzie asked.

Derek nodded, "My brother in law is an architect and he's designing it for me."

"Nice," commented Cristina.

"When are you going to start building it?" asked George.

"Spring," he told them.

Izzie finished her lunch "I get off in about three hours," she told them, "And I'm going to start decorating for Christmas."

"That sounds like fun," replied Meredith, "I get off in six hours."

"I'm Jewish," stated Cristina.

"I know," Izzie replied with a smile, "I bought a menorah. Don't worry, I'm not going to go as crazy as I did last year."

"You are psycho," Cristina said, getting up, "And we need to check on evil anti-birthing woman."

Meredith's pager went off, "Ugh. I have to go too." She leaned over and kissed Derek before leaving, "I'll see you later."

AAA

Finally getting off at a good time, Meredith went to visit her mom after work. They sat on the couch and Ellis had started a new medication that gave her more lucid time. This was one of them - for the time being.

"How are you, Meredith?"

"I'm great. Do you remember Derek?" Meredith had brought him almost a week ago. Ellis met him then wanted to know if Meredith needed her credit card for back to school shopping because she had a surgery soon.

"You're handsome boyfriend, yes I remember," she smiled.

"I'm going with him to New York for Christmas to meet his family."

"That sounds nice."

Meredith smiled, "It does."

Ellis looked at Meredith more closely, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in school?"

"No, mom. It's a break. I don't have school today."

"Well I have surgery, you can't stay with me."

AAA

Meredith got home to boxes of decorations all around the living room and Derek covered in multicolored lights while Izzie dug through a box. Izzie had apparently gotten a tree which was nicely set up waiting to be decorated.

"Izzie, what did you do to these lights?" Derek asked, somewhat stuck in the lights.

"Nothing!" She saw him and started laughing.

"It looks like they attacked you," Meredith said with a smile.

Derek turned around, and smiled at her, "Well at least they work."

"Izzie could hang ornaments on you and be done," she told him, going into the room

"Haha. Funny. You're a funny person. How's your mom?"

Meredith picked up some garland and looped it around Derek's shoulders. "She's fine. She was lucid for a little while, I told her about going to New York and she said it sounded nice."

"Well that's good," he smiled, "Now about this garland…"

"Aw, so festive," Izzie laughed.

Meredith giggled, "I'm going to take a shower. I'll be back in a little while to help."

Meredith got upstairs and heard Derek's phone ringing in the bedroom. She looked at the caller ID and it said 'Natalie'. Remembering his youngest sister was named Natalie she answered.

"Hello?"

"Um, hi. I'm looking for Derek," Natalie said a little confused at the female that didn't sound like Addison answering his phone. Then she wondered why she even thought Addison would be answering Derek's phone. She stopped her rambling thoughts so she could hear Meredith's reply.

"Oh yeah. He's helping my roommate decorate and he got tangled up in the lights," explained Meredith.

Natalie laughed, "Are you Meredith?"

"Yes and according to the caller ID you're Natalie," she smiled.

"That's me," Natalie said, "I heard you met Nancy a few months ago."

"I did and I don't think she liked me much."

"She's the most protective over Derek, that's why mom sent her out to find out what was going on."

"Oh, ok," replied Meredith realizing her reply sounded pretty stupid.

"She told us that you are very pretty and sweet. And I'm not sure if I should be repeating this but when she and Der were having lunch he got all defensive about Nancy calling you slutty and she told him she's never seen him like that over a girl, even Addie. Derek told her he's never been like that over a girl, especially Addison."

"Seriously?" Meredith asked with a smile.

"Yes. And the past few times I've talked to him he's gone on and on about you. It's so cute. I bet that wins him some points today."

Mer giggled, "Yes it does."

"I can't wait to meet the girl Derek is so crazy about and I know Sarah can't either. Which brings me back to the reason I was calling. Do you know when you guys are coming out here?"

"The morning of the 24th," Mer told her. "Our plane leaves at...6am."

"So you will be here by noon, wonderful."

"Natalie, do you know where we're staying? Derek didn't tell me."

"Ohh you're going to be right in the middle of everything. Mom has a huge house that's been in the family forever and we all stay there. We each stay in our old rooms; the kids have a huge camp out in the basement."

"Wow."

"Do you have a big family, Meredith?"

"No. It's just me, my mom, Derek and 3 friends/roommates."

"Oh then you're in for some fun. I can't wait!"

Meredith laughed nervously.

"Oh don't worry. Like I said Sarah and I are excited to meet you, Nancy...she likes you more now than before she met you and Kathy will probably try to go all shrink on you but she's not as intimidating as she seems."

"I feel a little better."

"And we take tons of pictures to document every occasion."

"Cool," Meredith said, again not sure how to reply.

"I think you will have a great time and I would love to talk to you more but I have to get the kids dinner."

"Ok. I'll see you in a couple weeks."

"Alright. Tell Der I say hi."

"I will. Bye."

"Bye."

AAA

Meredith finished her shower and put on sweat pants and a long sleeved shirt then went downstairs. Cristina had cleared off the couch and was eating popcorn. George and Derek were working on untangling another strand of lights and Izzie was putting on a strand that had already been untangled. Callie was sitting on the floor looking through the ornaments.

"Hi Callie," Meredith greeted.

"Hey," she replied with a smile.

Meredith went over to Derek, put her hands on either side of his face and kissed him. He put his free hand on her waist and returned the kiss, deepening it slightly.

"Oh, come on. I'm eating," complained Cristina.

After a moment Meredith pulled back with a smile.

"What was that for?" Derek asked.

Meredith sat next to Cristina and grabbed some popcorn. "Natalie called to see when we were going to be there but your phone was upstairs so I answered. She told me she talked to Nancy who told her about what you said while having lunch with her."

"Oohh what did he say?" Izzie asked from behind the tree.

"I'm actually interested in this," Cristina told her.

Derek smiled, "Essentially, I just told Nancy that Meredith is the best thing that happened to me and I've never felt as crazy about a girl as I have her."

Izzie appeared from the other side of the tree, "Awww that's so sweet!"

"It is," Callie agreed, "That's probably one of the sweetest things a guy could say."

"I do have to admit, I agree with Izzie and Callie," added Cristina.

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Cristina and Burke haven't made up yet? What?? Review!


	8. Chapter 8

**In celebration of finally being done with my evil, evil Shakespeare class I am giving you a double chapter. **

Disclaimer: As usual I don't own anything and as of tomorrow I wont own my evil, evil Shakespeare book either.

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It was the day before Meredith and Derek were supposed to leave and Meredith was assigned to Addison for the day. They had just one patient who was scheduled for a C-Section that afternoon. They had finished examining the patient and they were sitting in the courtyard eating - Addison offered to buy her lunch.

"So I heard you and Derek are going to New York tomorrow," Addison said.

"Yeah," replied Meredith, "I talked to Natalie last week and she said she was excited to meet me."

Addison nodded, "Natalie is the friendliest. Sarah is a little weird but she's very sweet. Nancy…well you met her. She can be hard on you to begin with but once she gets to know you a little more she really warms up. Kathleen is wary of new people…."

Meredith interrupted, "Natalie said Kathleen may, and I quote, go all shrink on me."

"Yeah, that's pretty much what she does," Addison laughed.

"Do you still talk to them all?" Meredith asked.

"Yes, I was there for Thanksgiving. Don't worry, I've been telling them wonderful things about you and how you make Derek happy," Addison put down her sandwich, "Never did I think that I'd be telling my ex husband's sisters how great his new girlfriend is."

Meredith laughed nervously.

"I don't hate you," she admitted, "I told you that when you were high on morphine because I knew you wouldn't remember but it's the truth. You are nice, kind to everyone, a great doctor and you make Derek really happy."

Meredith smiled, "Thank you."

Cristina, Izzie, and George sat at the other end watching Meredith and Addison.

"She's eating lunch with Addison," George stated.

"Yes, George. We know. You've said that," Cristina replied, "a few times."

"Seriously," said Izzie, "But why are they eating lunch together?"

They both started eating again and Meredith was contemplating asking Addison a question.

"What are you going to ask me?" Addison asked.

"What?"

Addison looked at her, "You were quiet and I could tell you were thinking. What did you want to ask me?"

"Do you think that if you hadn't slept with Mark you and Derek would still be together?" she voiced her inner question.

Addison didn't hesitate, "No. We got married kind of young and we changed. We didn't have the same connections, Derek didn't talk to me and I didn't try and make him. It was over before I slept with Mark."

"I'm sorry," she told her

"It's not your fault, believe me," she chuckled, "But he loves you, he…really, really loves you. I'm glad he chose you."

They ate in silence for a couple more minutes.

"So how many people are living in your house now?"

"Counting me, five," Meredith replied, "And Callie has stayed over a few times."

"Cristina and Burke haven't made up yet?" she asked.

"No, Burke really hurt her and she's just not ready to talk to him yet. It's fun having all my friends around though. Even if Cristina complains about Izzie's decorating and George and Izzie seem like they have to compete with Cristina. But she's my best friend. George and Izzie are great but…"

"I know," she nodded with a smile.

Meredith giggled, "Are we bonding?"

"I think so," Addison laughed.

"They're laughing," George said, "Meredith is laughing with her boyfriend's ex-wife."

"That's just weird," Cristina shook her head.

Callie came and sat next to George, "What's going on, guys?"

Izzie replied, "Addison and Meredith are having lunch together."

"Seriously?" she looked to where the others had been looking, "and they're laughing together? Weird."

"We know," George replied.

Addison and Meredith finished lunch and headed to their patient's room. Meredith's phone beeped telling her she got a text message. She unclipped the phone from her scrubs and looked at the message. It was from Derek. _I just finished packing._

"What is it?" Addison asked.

"He finished packing, waited until the last minute," she replied.

Addison nodded, "I think all men wait as long as possible before packing."

Meredith texted back _I ate lunch with Addison. We bonded. Now we're doing a C Section in a few._

A couple seconds later came _Seriously? Bonding? You'll have to tell me about it later._

AAA

"George!" Callie called, catching up with him as he was leaving.

"Callie, hey," he replied waiting for her to catch up. They had started going out again after they talked.

flashback

_"Callie, do you want to go out again?" George asked after getting the nerve._

_"I do I just don't want to feel like I'm second best. I don't want to be second to Meredith or Izzie. I get that they're your friends but…"_

_"I know, I messed up. But I want a second chance," He smiled, "I want to be the pig."_

_Callie laughed, "Alright, George."_

end flashback

"So, do you want to go to Joes?" she asked, "I think Izzie said she, Meredith, Cristina, and McDreamy were going."

"Yes, I do want to go."

AAA

"Hey Addison," Mark greeted, coming up to her at the nurses station.

"Mark," she replied.

"Where are Meredith and Derek?" he asked, "I haven't seen them around today"

"New York for Christmas," Addison told him.

"She's meeting the family?"

"Yes. From what she told me Nat and Sarah love her already."

"Nat loves everyone but Sarah too?" he commented, "What do you think mom will think about her?"

Addison shrugged, "I have no idea."

"Hmm. So do you want to have dinner with me tonight?" he asked giving her his McSteamy face.

Addison apparently couldn't resist the McSteamy face and smiled, "Yes I would."

AAA

Natalie waited in the terminal for her big brother to appear in the mass of people exiting the plane. She finally saw him with a cute blonde holding his hand. 'That must be Meredith,' she thought.

"Hey, Der Bear!" she called.

Derek found her and led Meredith over. He hugged Natalie, "How are you, Nat?"

"I'm awesome," she replied and pulled back then looked at Meredith and smiled. "You must be Meredith."

Meredith grinned, "Yes. It's really great to meet you, "she held out her hand.

Natalie ignored her hand and hugged her as well. Mer was shocked for a second but hugged her back. Nat pulled back, "Ok, let's get your bags. Mom said she was really excited to meet you, Meredith."

They all started walking to baggage claim and Derek put his arm around Meredith's waist, "I told you so."

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After picking up their luggage, Natalie drove them to mom's house. There were lights strung along the gutter and you could see the tree in the window and the ground was covered with snow.

"Nats, did you wrap the gifts for us?" Derek asked.

"Sure did and I didn't even peek at mine," she replied.

"Right," he replied, not believing her.

Meredith giggled, "I always wanted a sibling. Arguing with yourself isn't as much fun."

Natalie laughed, "Arguing with three sisters and a brother isn't always fun either. But arguing with yourself just makes you seem crazy."

They all got out laughing at Natalie's comment, Derek and Mer grabbed their bags from the trunk and they followed Natalie to the house.

Derek looked over at Meredith as they got onto the porch, "You nervous?"

Meredith looked at him with a smile, "Yes."

Natalie opened the door and called out, "We're back!" and went in, Derek and Meredith following her into the living room. Derek's mother came up to them. She was slightly shorter than Derek and had long grey hair.

"Hi mom," he put down his bag and hugged her.

"And this must be Meredith," she stated after they pulled apart.

"Yes. Meredith, this is my mom Julia Shepherd. Mom, this is my girlfriend Meredith Grey," he introduced them with a huge smile.

"It's very nice to meet you Mrs. Shepherd," Mer smiled.

"Oh, call me Julia, please."

"Uncle Derek!!" a herd of children came running over to them. Katie jumped into his arms and he caught her.

"Did you bring me a present?" she asked.

Derek chuckled, "I did but you have to wait until Christmas."

"Who is she?" Nolan asked, pointing to Meredith.

"She's Uncle Derek's girlfriend, Meredith," Natalie told the kids.

"Mer, this is Katie," he said indicating the girl he was holding, then began pointing out the other children. "That's Nolan, Nate, Nadia, Ben, Madeline, Abby, Aaron, Ben, Jessica, Sophie, Chris, Eve and Kaylie."

"Are you gonna get married?" Nicole asked.

Meredith smiled, "No."

"Not yet anyway," he grinned at Mer.

"Well can I will call you Aunt Meredith?" Nicole asked again.

"Sure," Meredith told her getting less and less nervous.

Natalie took charge again, "Ok kids, go play again so," she smiled, "Aunt Meredith can meet everyone else."

Julie added, "Aaron, Ben. Please take their bags to Uncle Derek's room."

"Yes, Grandma," replied Ben.

"Sure thing, Grandma," said Aaron at the same time and did what Julia told them.

Derek put Katie down who looked up to Meredith, "You're very pretty," then ran off with the others.

Derek took Meredith's hand and led her to the family room.

Nancy saw them first, "Derek! Meredith!" Sure she wasn't as happy to see Meredith as she was Derek but if she made Derek happy then she couldn't be that bad. She hugged them both. Again Meredith was surprised but she was getting used to the hugging.

"Ok!" Indicating the man closest to them Natalie said, "This is my husband Nathan. Next to him is Nancy, as you know. Next to her is her husband Brad. In the chairs there are Sarah, Kathleen, Kathleen's husband Jeremy and then Sarah's husband Tom. Everyone this is Meredith, Der's girlfriend."

Meredith got more hugs and "nice to meet you"s from everyone.

AAA

"Where are we going?" Callie asked as George drove in the light rain.

"It's a surprise," he told her.

He drove to a park and led her to a little gazebo. He pulled a picnic basket out of the trunk and took Callie's hand as they walked to it. She sat on a bench while George spread out the blanket and pulled out a couple candles and lit them. Then he pulled the sandwiches out of the basket along with 2 bottles of water and chips.

"I know it's not a great picnic but…"

"George, this is amazing," she told them as they sat down on the blanket.

George looked at her and with a smile said, "Callie…I love you."

Callie beamed, "George I love you, too."

AAA

Izzie was home alone since George was on a date with Callie and Cristina was at the hospital on call. Alex knocked on the door and Izzie opened it surprised to see him.

"Alex, what are you doing here?" she asked, letting him in.

He was holding a couple DVDs. "I was wondering if you wanted to watch a movie."

"Sure," she replied, "What did you bring?"

"I don't know what you like so I brought James Bond; Tomorrow Never Dies, Scary Movie, Austin Powers, and The Lake House."

"They're all good. What about The Lake House?" she suggested.

He smiled, "Absolutely."

They went to the living room and Izzie put in the DVD while Alex sat on the couch.

"Do you want a drink or something to eat?" she asked.

"No thanks," he replied and she sat down on the couch with him to watch the movie.

AAA

The adults all sat in the family room.

"Why did you choose Seattle again, Derek?" Kathleen asked.

Nancy looked at her, "he has that thing for ferries."

"Ferry boats," Meredith and Derek corrected simultaneously for the second time.

"And Richard called me," Derek added.

Kathleen turned to Meredith, "Meredith, tell us about your family."

"Oh um," she looked at Derek who gave her an apologizing but encouraging look then turned back to the others, "Well my parents got divorced when I was young and I don't see my father much. My mother has Alztimers. I never had any brothers or sisters but I have 3 really good friends. Two are my roommates – George and Izzie. George has two brothers and Izzie loves to bake. Cristina is my best friend and she's very driven and not really a people person but…" she realized she was rambling, "And Derek," she smiled at him, "He's my family too."

"Wow," Sarah replied, "So many times in my life I wished I was an only child."

"I think we all did, SaySay," Kathleen replied.

"I just wish I had one brother. Just one," Derek told them, "But no. I get four evil sisters."

Nancy smile wickedly, "Oh Meredith, did Derek ever tell you what we did to him with make up?"

"No, he didn't," Meredith replied getting interested.

"You will not show her the pictures," Derek told them

Sarah pulled something off of the corner table, "Oh but we will. Come here Meredith."

Meredith went and stood between Kathleen and Sarah and looked at the pictures of what seemed to be a 12 or 13 year old Derek with his make up done and hair in tiny little Pebbles ponytails all over his head. She immediately burst out laughing.

"You were really cute," she giggled

"I was tied up," he chuckled.

"Oh Derek," smiled Nancy, "You know you loved it."

He just shook his head.

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	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I still own my Shakespeare book but not GA 

**Cinny72:** Writing Addie and Mer bonding was so much fun lol.

**Into.The.Fire:** I figured not all the sisters could be like Nancy and I'm sure they want Derek to be happy so I was like why not? Hehe

**Krisinmtka:** Finals are evil and I'm glad I could be a fun distraction.

**Lizzie9:** Just about the whole thing will be like this lol. Its super sap hahaha.

Everyone else: Thanks for the love :D

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Katie, Abby, and Chris came up to Meredith who was sitting with Derek, Aaron, Ben, and Eve in the living room.

"Aunt Meredith?" Abby asked.

Derek smiled and Mer looked at the three younger children, "Yes Abby?"

Abby grinned, Meredith remembered her name, "Do you want to come with us and see our fort in the basement?"

"I would love to," Meredith replied. Chris and Abby took her hands and she stood up, they led her out of the room.

"Have fun!" Derek called.

AAA

Cristina was sitting in the lounge across from the living room reading about a surgery she was going to scrub in on the next day when someone knocked on the door.

"I got it," She got up and when she looked through the window she saw it was Burke. She opened the door.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

Cristina opened the door wider and let him in then closed it behind him.

"Why did you tell Shepherd I was fine? Why did you make us a team and say no one had to know?" he asked in his normally low, quiet voice.

"Are you going to start yelling again?" she asked sarcastically.

"No."

"Because we were a team, we worked together so well. Because I didn't know what I'd do if you weren't fine. You didn't have to be fine because you were Preston Burke but," she looked down at her hands," because you were my boyfriend because…."

He looked at her more intently, "Because what, Cristina?"

"Because I love you," she replied quietly, looking at him, everything showing in her eyes.

From the living room Cristina heard Alex ask Izzie, "Did Cristina just tell Burke she loves him?"

"Yes I did Evil Spawn, shut up."

"I'm sorry for going off on you like that."

AAA

Meredith was in the basement fort - which was a lot bigger than she thought it would be - with Abby, Chris, Katie, Sophie and Nolan when her cell phone rang from outside the fort.

"I got it!" Abby yelled and actually answered Meredith's phone. "Hello?"

Cristina was a bit confused, "Um yeah can I talk to Meredith?"

"Aunt Meredith it's for you!" She announced, yelling. She went into the fort to hand Mer the phone.

"Of course it is, Abby. It's my cell phone, silly," Meredith replied taking the phone, "Hello?"

"Who was that?" Cristina asked.

"Derek's niece, Abby."

"She calls you Aunt already? After what, 3 hours?"

"Nicole started it when we first got here."

Katie heard it and went over to her, "Aunt Meredith who is it?"

"It's my friend Cristina. I'll be right back ok?"

The kids nodded and continued playing and Meredith left the fort and sat on a couch, "What's up Cristina?"

"Burke and I talked and then I told him I loved him. Then we made up."

"Seriously?

"Yes. He told me he was sorry for yelling at me. That he was really stressed about what was happening with his career and he shouldn't have taken it out on me. Then he told me that he was miserable without me. I asked him why he didn't come talk to me sooner and he said," she laughed, "That he was afraid I would beat his ass."

"He said that?"

"No exactly but it's basically what he said. But he was sitting at home for about two weeks trying to get over his fear and pride to talk to me."

"That's so sweet."

"Mer, I told him I loved him."

"I know, you said that."

"He was awake and I was sober. You know what this means?"

Meredith smiled, "You love Burke."

"Who does Cristina love?" came a voice from the tent.

Meredith giggled, "Cristina loves her boyfriend."

The kids, it seemed all together, said "ohhhhh"

"I told him I'm not going back until after my shift tomorrow because even though he apologized I'm not running straight back to him. It's all on my terms. He said he respected that and he told me he loved me too."

AAA

Derek was sitting in the living room with Aaron and Eve watching 'A Christmas Story'

"Uncle Derek," Aaron started, "Did mom tell you I got a tattoo?"

"No, she didn't," Derek replied intrigued.

"He is so proud of that. He didn't even tell Aunt Kathleen he got it. She just saw it one day."

"Did you tell Uncle Jeremy?" Derek asked.

Aaron was rolling up the sleeve of his t-shirt, "Yeah. He said not to tell mom but don't tell her."

Derek chuckled. Aaron revealed the tattoo. "It's the Chinese character for life and vitality."

"Nice."

"I'm going to get stars on my lower back when I turn 18," Eve told them.

AAA

No sooner had Meredith hung with Cristina then he phone rang again. This time it was Addison.

"Hi," Meredith greeted, a little surprised Addison was calling her.

"How's it going?" Addison asked.

"Very well. Nancy was a bit wary still at first but I think its getting better. The first thing Kathleen asked me was about my family. And I told them all about my mother. I don't know why it's just like everyone else knows so why not more people? But - "

"Meredith, stop rambling."

"Right."

"Anything else going on?" Addison asked.

"Aunt Meredith who are you talking to now?" Katie asked loudly.

Meredith chuckled, "Some of them are calling me Aunt."

"I hear," Addison laughed, "How is everyone?"

"Oh they're great. Katie, Abby, and Chris pulled me to the basement to see their fort. Sarah showed me a picture of Derek in make up."

Addison burst out laughing, "That is a great picture."

Once they stopped laughing Meredith asked, "I was just wondering, not to sound…but why are you…"

"I told you the other day. You make Derek happy and I'm happy and you're happy. I love Derek's family but they will probably your family eventually and I just want to make sure everything is going well," she explained, "I don't know about you but I think of you as a friend."

"Wow, thanks Addison."

"It's Aunt Addie?" Katie asked, "Can I talk to her?"

Addison heard Katie and told Meredith, "Yeah I'm free for a while."

AAA

Meredith came back to join them a while later. Derek was with Aaron, Jessica and Ben playing a game of Uno.

Mer stood at the edge of the couch, next to Derek, and watched. He looked up at her and smiled.

"Hey you," He pulled her into his lap."

"Hey," she giggled.

"How was the fort?" Aaron asked.

She smiled, "It was great."

"Do you have any nieces or nephews?" Jessica asked.

Meredith shook her head, "No, I'm an only child. Just my mom, my 3 friends and Derek."

"Whoa," Ben replied, "that's so small."

"And quiet," Derek chuckled, putting down a card

"Speaking of quiet, Cristina and Burke made up. She called to tell me."

"Seriously?" he asked

"Seriously," she replied.

"Who is Cristina?" Jessica asked, reversing the order of card placement.

"My best friend and she works with us all. She and her boyfriend had a huge fight and she lived with him so she came to stay at my house for a while. But her boyfriend came to talk to her and they finally made up," Meredith explained.

Aaron had to pick up three cards. "How long was she at your house?"

"About three weeks. And after Cristina called Addison called," Just as she said that Nolan came over with the phone.

"Do any of you wanna talk to Aunt Addie?" Nolan asked.

"Yes!" the three teens replied.

"And she's still on the phone," Mer added.

"Why did she call you?" Derek asked.

"Because we're friends and she wanted to make sure everything was going well," she told him.

From the other room, while Jess, Ben, and Aaron talked to Addison, came the question he had been waiting for all day. "Who wants to go out and make the snowman??"

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Ooooo a snow man

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	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Grey's owns me – it's sad. Really.

This was supposed to be two parts but the second part was so short I just combined them. Enjoy :D

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Tom and Nathan were rolling around the middle part of the snow make making it slightly bigger while Meredith helped Madeline and Kaylie build the head.

Derek took a second to just watch her. She was laughing and having fun with the girls.

"You really were telling the truth," Nancy said coming up behind him.

"What?" he asked, turning to look at his sister.

"This is the third time you've watched her and when you do you get this look on your face. Like she's the only one in the world."

Derek smiled, "Like I said, I've never been like this over a girl."

Suddenly he was hit in the shoulder by a snow ball. He turned to see Meredith and two of his nieces giggling trying to pretend they didn't throw it. He strolled over to them.

With a smile he asked, "Ladies, none of you threw the snowball did you?"

"Aunt Meredith did it!" exclaimed Kaylie.

Meredith gasped, "You tattled!"

"He tickles!" Kaylie explained giggling.

"Kay, lets take the head over!" Madeline suggested quickly and they girls picked it up and took it leaving Derek and Meredith alone.

"They were telling me every year you all make a snow man together."

Derek nodded, "It's a tradition. Build a snowman, play in the snow while mom, Kathleen and Sarah make dinner and everyone has hot chocolate before dinner."

Mer smiled, "I like it. Having a family is fun."

Derek looped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to him, "They really like you."

"Aunt Meredith! Uncle Derek! Its time to dress the snowman!"

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Izzie walked into the kitchen to see Cristina in there eating. Alex had just left.

"Why are you sill here? I thought you and Burke made up."

"Because I'm not Meredith. I told Burke I'd go back in two days when I'm finished with my shift and I don't care what holiday it is," Cristina explained.

Izzie nodded, not really sure what to say.

Cristina ate a little, "Besides, I think it'll be amusing to see you guys on Christmas."

"George and I both got you a present," Izzie told her.

"I know," she replied a little reluctantly, "I got you guys something too."

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Meredith woke up, her back snug against Derek's chest and his arm around her. It took her just a moment to remember where she was and the wonderful Christmas Eve dinner. She had been expecting more questions about her family and childhood and everything but instead they asked her about work, her friends. She and Derek shared some stories and the kids were amazed to hear about surgeries. She also got to learn a lot more about Derek's family. He was right, they liked her and she liked them.

She noticed the change in Derek's breathing and knew he was awake. She rolled over to face him.

"Merry Christmas, Mer," he smiled, he voice gravely from sleep.

She grinned, "Merry Christmas."

He kissed her softly before asking, "What time is it?"

Meredith raised her head to look for a clock just before they heard running voices yelling, informing everyone that it's Christmas and Santa came.

"No need," he chuckled, "It's about six."

There was a small knock on the door then Katie burst in, "Uncle Derek, Aunt Meredith, get up! It's Christmas!" She jumped on the bed.

"Is it?" he asked feigning surprise, "I forgot!"

"No you didn't!" Katie giggled, "Get up so we can open presents!"

"Alright Katie pie, go on and make sure everyone else is awake and we will be down soon, ok?" Derek told her.

"Yep!" She scrambled off the bed and run out of the room.

He turned back to Meredith who was just partly sitting up, smiling.

"This is great," she said, "I love it."

"I don't know about you, but I need coffee. Its only 3am in Seattle." He put his arms around her again, snuggling with her, "And you're so warm."

"Mmmm, but we have to get up before more kids jump on us," she replied.

He groaned and kissed her again before getting up, Meredith following suit.

"Its going to be loud, messy and very fast," he told her, "and we all wear pajamas."

Meredith, wearing sweat pants and her Dartmouth shirt and Derek, wearing PJ pants and a t shirt, headed downstairs to get coffee from Derek's mom.

Everyone sat in the huge living room around the tree and the massive amount of presents.

"Ok," Began Julia, "Sophie, Ben, Nolan and Nicole will pass out the gifts this year. No one is to being opening until they are all passed out."

There was a chorus of "Yes Grandma" and the passing out began.

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George and Izzie woke up at 5, an hour earlier than they needed to be up for their shift to exchange gifts and they had to wake up Cristina who wasn't as happy about the gift exchange as they were.

"Morning sucks," Cristina commented, drinking coffee and sitting on the couch with George and Izzie.

"Presents make it better," Izzie told her with a smile.

Izzie knitted them each a scarf. Coincidentally, Cristina got Izzie yarn for knitting and got George the CD he'd wanted. George got Izzie a new holiday cookbook and Cristina two bags of Starbucks coffee.

"Let's call Meredith!" Izzie suggested, picking up her cell phone.

"Is she going to be awake?" George asked,

Cristina sipped her coffee, "There's a three hour time difference, its 8am there and with all those kids she'll be awake."

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Derek was right. She had never seen so much wrapping paper come flying off so quickly. Now all the toys were out, put together if needed, and being played with. She, Derek, Natalie, Sarah, and Jeremy were sitting at the table after eating breakfast talking when her phone rang.

She looked at the caller ID before answering, "Izzie!"

"Merry Christmas," Izzie, George and Cristina, not as excited as the other two, greeted her.

Meredith excused herself from the table, "Merry Christmas guys,"

"So what did the McFamily get you?" Cristina asked; they put Meredith on speaker phone.

"Derek got me a necklace. A three stone diamond pendant necklace."

"Seriously?!" Izzie gasped.

"Seriously. His mom got me a nice sweater and his sisters got us things for around the house. Oh and Brad gave Derek the blueprints for the house."

"You'll have to show us when you get back," Izzie said.

"We have to go to work now because we don't have the day off like some people!" George called.

Meredith laughed, "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Tell McDreamy we say hi," Cristina instructed.

"Ok, I will. Bye."

"Bye," they all replied.

Meredith and Derek got back to Seattle the next evening and had a few hours to unpack before George and Izzie got home. They met up with everyone at Joe's after George, Izzie and Cristina's shift and Derek took the blueprints to show everyone. Two levels, five bedrooms, three and half bathrooms, a nice big kitchen, a library/study for Derek and Meredith to do work in, and all the other normal rooms a house has.

Cristina went back to Burke's apartment after seeing Meredith. She found him sitting on the couch.

"Hey," he smiled when he saw her.

"Hey," she replied, putting her stuff down by the door. She headed over to the couch.

"How was work?" he asked.

"Fine," she told him as she straddled him on the couch and started unbuttoning his shirt, "What about you?"

He didn't reply but instead kissed her.

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All was well but the 5 interns had to work a marathon hour shift over New Years Eve.

"Six hours to go. It's almost midnight and we have six more hours," complained George.

He, Izzie, Meredith and Cristina were sitting on the gurneys in their hallway. Alex was the only one with a surgery – a neuro case with Derek.

"It's my first New Years with Derek and he's in a freakin' surgery," Meredith joined in the complaining.

"Alex is in a surgery and I'm not," added Cristina.

"I hate working New Years," Izzie finished the line of complaints.

Meredith laid her head on Izzie's shoulder, "Me too."

"I hope there's a huge car accident and we get something surgical," Cristina wished with a smile, she was laying on her stomach on a gurney, "And by we I mean me."

"That's just mean," George replied sitting in a wheelchair, rolling around, "You are mean."

"What's mean is Bailey assigning Alex to Derek," said Meredith.

"Oh stop it. You can't be with McDreamy all the time," replied Cristina.

"You were with Burke all the time," Meredith countered.

Before Cristina could say something else Derek found them in their not so secret hiding spot.

"Don't tell Bailey we're here," was the first thing out of George's mouth, "We're tired and bored and there's nothing to do."

"I didn't see you," he replied, his eyes on Meredith the whole time. He walked over to her.

Meredith lifted her head and smiled at him, "You have a surgery, what are you doing down here?"

He smiled at her, "It's midnight, I have Alex finishing pre op prep and I wanted to kiss my girlfriend on New Years Eve."

Cristina planted her face into the gurney, "Oh the sweet is going to make me McVomit."

Derek put his hands on either side of her on the gurney and leaned in to kiss her. Meredith's arms went around his neck and she deepened the kiss. After a few moments they broke apart.

"Happy New Year, Mer," he whispered.

She smiled and whispered back, "Happy New Year."

His pager went off. "I gotta go. I'll see you in a little while," he tucked some hair behind her ear and headed back upstairs.

Izzie nudged Meredith with her shoulder, "Mer that was sooo sweet!"

Meredith just smiled.

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**The next part skips ahead to spring, just to let everyone know :)**

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	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I will gladly pay you sometime in the far future for GA today.

Kristinmtka and f4fan90 – you two are the main reason I am up at 2:15am. Everyone needs a study break and this fic is 99 written why not update a whole lot? In a short while you will all see why its just 99 written and not totally done. And there is still a while to go; in word the fic is 65 pages - my longest one ever.

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Skipping ahead four months to spring George and Callie are going strong – he's very sweet and loving and they have a great time together. Cristina and Burke are back to being a crazy happy team and Cristina is considering specializing in cardiothoracic. Alex and Izzie are kinda dating. Izzie is still a little standoffish at times because of what happened with Denny – she let him in, loved him and he died. Alex understands and he is being sweetly patient. Meredith and Derek…well they're being themselves and Derek was looking for a contractor start construction on their house.

Meredith had managed to get up and make it to the bathroom to throw up for the third morning in a row without alerting Derek. Cristina caught her throwing up in the locker room restroom yesterday and immediately thought she was pregnant. Meredith thought so too but was in some sort of denial saying it was the stomach flu. Of course she should know better being a doctor but denial is a great place to be.

Over the last few days she got to thinking about having a baby with Derek and it became more and more alluring each day.

"Today," she told herself, "I am going to talk to Addison."

The interns got changed and Meredith avoided talking to Cristina about the possibility of her being pregnant. They got through rounds and thankfully Meredith didn't get assigned to any surgeries so as soon as they finished she sought out Addison.

Mer found Addison at the nurse's station finishing notes on a chart.

"Addison?" Meredith asked, coming to stand next to her.

"Meredith," she smiled, "What can I do for you?"

"Can I talk to you…privately?"

Addison looked at Meredith over her glasses for a second, "Sure."

She led Meredith to an empty exam room and closed the door, taking off her glasses. "What's up?"

"I think I'm pregnant."

"You think…?" Addie questioned, "Have you taken a test?"

"No. But I've been throwing up the past three mornings and I realized on the drive to work this morning I should have gotten my period about 6 days ago. I know I should have noticed that but I didn't and I think I'm pregnant," Meredith explained, rambling.

"Ok let's go to maternity and I'll do an ultrasound. Have you talked to Derek about this?" Addison asked, finding herself happy for them instead of jealous.

"No, I wanted to have an answer for sure before I told him."

Addison opened the door, "Well let's go get your answer."

Addison and Meredith went up to maternity together. To anyone else it would seem like Meredith was Addison's intern for the day. The closer they got the more nervous Meredith got. She was thankful they didn't run into Cristina, Izzie, George, Alex or Derek on the way. Addison found an empty room, closed the blinds and prepped Meredith for an ultrasound.

"We don't lie, that IS cold." Meredith laughed nervously after Addison put the gel on her stomach.

"Someone should do something about that," Addison smiled, "You ok?"

"Yeah I'm just nervous. I don't want to turn into my mother," she confided.

"You won't. And I know that because you know what it's like to have that mother," Addison smiled reassuringly, "Are you ready?"

Meredith nodded. Addison ran the ultrasound probe over Meredith's abdomen and waited for something to come up on the screen. The quiet of the room was broken by the sound of a fetal heartbeat.

"You're pregnant," Addison announced, "About 5 weeks."

"Can I see?" Meredith asked, surprisingly aware of the smile she had. Addison turned the screen for her to see.

"It all looks great. One of us should tell Bailey so she can look out for you. And no doing x-rays."

Meredith nodded. Before anything else could be said Meredith's pager went off. She pulled it off her scrubs.

"Crap. ER."

Addison had already begun wiping off her stomach. "Come see me later if you have any questions."

"Thanks Addison!"

Meredith got to the ER to find that Bailey, the other interns and Derek were already there. There had been a car accident. There were three victims and apparently one needed a neuro consult.

"Nice of you to join us, Grey. I need you to take Mr. Simpson to get an x-ray," Bailey told her, turning to attend to a patient.

"I can't," Meredith replied getting the attention of Derek, Bailey and Cristina – the only intern within earshot.

Bailey walked over to Meredith, "You can't? And why would that be?"

Well this isn't how she wanted to tell Derek but things rarely happen as we want them to. She took a breath before answering. "I'm pregnant."

"I knew it!" Cristina exclaimed.

Derek blinked.

Bailey, as usual, was ready with a different game plan, "Yang, you take the patient to x-ray. Grey – have you seen Dr. Montgomery?" meaning personally, not for a patient.

"Yes," she nodded, "I was just with her."

"Ok," she organized everything in her head, "As much as you and Dr. Shepherd would love to talk about this – because his expression tells me he just found out as well - we need to treat these patients first. Please go assist Dr. Burke in trauma two."

Derek forced his attention back to his patient – a conscious male in his 20's with a deep head laceration.

"You're Dr. Shepherd, right?" the patient asked.

"Yes I am," Derek replied.

"Congrats man."

"Thank you," he said, his brain spinning slightly from the news.

Three hours later Meredith finished a chart at the nurses' station then went down to the gurneys in the basement hallway.

Derek fixed his patient and now had time to talk to Meredith. He couldn't find her anywhere nearby so he checked the spot Bailey's intern's claimed in the basement. As he neared the bottom of the stairs he heard talking.

"I knew it," Cristina repeated from earlier, "You're having McBaby."

Meredith giggled, "Well it couldn't be appendicitis twice,"

"And you went to McEx-Wife," Cristina said.

"We're friends," Meredith reiterated.

"So what are you going to do? Have you talked to McDreamy yet?"

Meredith shook her head, "Not yet. He's been in surgery. And in the middle of the ER was not the way I wanted him to find out."

Cristina laughed, "Did you see his face? He just blinked," she ate some chips, "So are you keeping it?"

"Seriously?! Of course! I'm having my McDreamy's baby," Mer replied, then repeated what Cristina said, "I'm having McBaby. When I first thought I might be pregnant I was scared – I still have almost all of my residency left, fellowship and I didn't want to by like my mother. But the more I thought about it…I have Derek and you guys and I told Addison about being like my mom and she said that would never happen because I know what it's like and I wouldn't let that happen."

"It won't happen. You have your McLife now," Cristina told her.

"I do have to say a McBaby is better than a McDog."

"How's your conditioner working?" Cristina asked and they both started laughing about some apparent inside joke he didn't understand.

Derek decided to make his appearance and finished down the stairs. Meredith was laying on one gurney and Cristina was sitting on the one next to her.

"Hello," he greeted with a smile.

"Hey!" Meredith replied.

"Hi," Cristina said, getting up, "I'm gonna go and let you guys talk."

Meredith sat up and Derek sat next to her.

"I didn't want you to find out that way," she told him, lacing her fingers with his.

"I know," he gave her his McDreamy smile, "How far along are you?"

"Addison said five weeks and she said that everything looks great," she reported, beaming, "Derek, we're having a baby!"

"I know," he repeated, with a smiling matching hers. He leaned over and kissed her lovingly, "I need to find a contractor. We're going to need that house."

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	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I just bought the Sims 2 Happy Holiday Stuff…

I'm glad everyone likes the Addie/Mer friendship. It was really fun to write.

**Greysaddict4life** – thanks! thanks! thanks! I'm glad you like it so much!

**Anything.you.want** – I must, like, really rock…lol thanks!

Yay McBaby!!

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Cristina got home and found candles lit all around the apartment. There were flower petals scattered all around and Burke was standing in front of the couch facing her. She put her stuff down.

"Burke what's going on?" she asked walking over to him.

"Cristina, we make a wonderful team," he shifted down onto one knee, "I love you. Will you marry me?"

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"Meredith, how's it going?" Joe asked the next night after work.

"Great Joe," she smiled, "could I have some water?"

"Sure thing. No tequila tonight?" he asked

"No tequila for like nine months," Alex answered sitting one seat away from her.

"You're pregnant?" Joe asked smiling.

"She is," Cristina replied sitting on the other side of Meredith, "And I said yes. Vodka please, Joe"

"Congratulations Meredith," Joe told her before they turned to Cristina, the lucky one who didn't have to work today. Joe poured her a vodka shot.

"Thank you Joe. Cristina, you said yes about what?" Meredith asked.

"Burke asked me to marry him and I said yes," she took a shot.

"Seriously? Cristina!" Meredith hugged her.

"This is hugging!"

"I don't care if this is hugging. I'm pregnant, I can hug."

The bell over the door jangled, someone else came in.

"Heyyy!" Joe greeted, "Dr. Shepherd, congrats on the baby."

"Thanks Joe," he smiled. "Meredith, why are you hugging Cristina?"

Meredith turned around to face Derek, "She and Burke are engaged!"

Derek had a bit of a surprised expression, "Congratulations."

"And apparently hugging is ok because she's pregnant," Cristina added, "Just you wait, Meredith. You're going to be cursing the boy penis soon."

"Do I even want to ask?" Derek questioned.

"I don't think so, man," Alex replied shaking his head.

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Meredith and Izzie got home from a 30 hour shift and saw a kitten sitting on the front porch. It was while with a black stripe down its back.

"Mer...there's a kitten on the porch," Izzie said.

"Yeah," Meredith replied. The kitten stood up as they got closer to it but didn't make any move to run away. Meredith slowly approached it and picked it up, "Let's take it inside."

They went in with the kitten and sat on the couch.

"Where do you think it came from?" asked Izzie

"I don't know," Mer replied, setting the kitten on her legs, "But she's really thin. I think she's a stray."

"We have some tuna," Izzie said, "Let's give her some."

They took the kitten into the kitchen. Meredith set her on the island as Izzie got the can of tuna and a plate. She put the tuna on the plate and set it in front of the kitten that immediately began eating it.

"We should keep her," Meredith said, stroking the kitten's back.

"It would be a lot easier than a dog," Izzie laughed.

An hour, about two and a half cans of tuna, later the kitten finished eating.

"We need kitten supplies." Izzie realized, "Let's take her to the pet store.

"Alright."

Izzie and Meredith went to the pet store and bought a litter box, litter, food, toys, food and water bowls, a bed and a carrier along with other assorted items.

When they got home that afternoon Derek and George were home as well.

"You got a cat?" George asked.

"We found a stray kitten," Meredith corrected.

"A kitten?" Derek asked, coming into the living room where all of the kitten's new possessions were. Izzie was holding it, petting it."

"The pet store told us it's a girl and they recommended a vet – Katherine Zebert - and I made an appointment for tomorrow morning since I'm not working," Meredith told them.

"Neither am I," Derek said, "I'll go with you."

Meredith smiled, "Great."

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Cristina got into to bed, "Finally. My mother finally stopped talking."

Burke chuckled.

"Don't laugh. She wouldn't shut up about things for the wedding. We don't even know when we're getting married yet and she's talking about flowers. Seriously," she rolled her eyes, "And your mother hates me."

"She doesn't hate you she's just wary of anyone I date."

"Oh she'll hate me when she finds out we're getting married. I'll be taking away her little boy."

"My father likes you," Burke offered.

"I was never worried about _him_ liking me."

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Meredith and Derek were sitting it the exam room with the kitten.

"What should we name her?" She asked, "We can't keep calling her 'kitten' and they need a name for the records."

"Well we already had Doc so what about Nurse," he teased.

"Nurse?" she laughed, "What about spinal incision?" she suggested, "Her black stripe."

Derek laughed, "Surgeons shouldn't name animals."

"Tequila?"

"That's interesting." Derek then had an idea, "Tiki for short."

"Ohh I like it," She went and picked up the kitten, "Do you like it Tiki?"

The newly named kitten began to purr.

The door opened and the vet came in, looking at the file, "Ok, new unnamed kitten…"

Meredith's eyes widened, "Finn?"

"Meredith, Dr. Shepherd. Hi," he greeted.

"Dr. Dandridge," Derek replied dryly, "I thought you have your own practice."

"I'm helping out a friend today. So, uh, you found a kitten?" he asked.

"I found her yesterday. We had the day off and we wanted to get her checked out," She explained, Tiki climbed up her shoulder and over to Derek's shoulder.

"Ow, claws, Tequila," Derek pulled Tiki off of his shoulder.

"Tequila?" Finn asked, why would he say tequila?

"Meredith really likes Tequila so we just named the kitten that," he told Finn then looked to Meredith, "are you having some sort of tequila withdrawal?"

"But we decided to call her Tiki," added Meredith, then answered Derek, "No…maybe. I don't know."

"Ok, well I will do an exam, take some blood," he said, looking at Meredith and defiantly not sure what they were talking about.

Derek started getting a little jealous even though he had no reason to be. He set Tiki on the table and Finn began the exam.

Meredith felt the now familiar and not so fun feeling, "I need the bathroom. You stay, Derek," she said as she quickly headed out of the room to the bathroom.

"Is she ok?" Finn asked.

"Yeah, she's fine," Derek replied, smiling. "Only happens in the morning and it won't last long."

Finn thought about that, "Only in the morning?"

"She's pregnant."

"Ohh. Morning sickness," said Finn.

Derek nodded. This guy wasn't too bright when it came to people. He couldn't help but give Finn an almost gloating look. She chose him and not McVet. Derek could defiantly see why Cristina made fun of the vet. He'd have to tell her about this.

"Well, uh congratulations," Finn offered.

"Thanks," He couldn't stop the smile that appeared.

Meredith returned about five minutes later and stood next to Derek again. He put his hand on her lower back rubbing it softly, looking at her.

"You ok, Mer?" he asked, "You were gone for a while."

She nodded, "Yeah. Addison called. She has a couple hours free this afternoon and wants me to see her about vitamins and stuff."

"Dr. Shepherd told me the news," Finn said, looking over Tiki, "Congratulations."

"Thank you," she replied.

"Ok well Tiki looks to be about four months old. She should be spayed in two months if you choose to do that. You said she was a stray so she probably hasn't had her shots. I'll do that and draw some blood. Dr. Zebert will call you with the results as soon as they come in so that you know if there is anything abnormal."

"Thank you," Meredith said.

"Thanks," Derek said at the same time.

Finn gave Tiki her shots and drew blood and finished his work, letting them go home telling them Tiki would be tired from the shots.

"That was a little…," Meredith started, but then trailed off searching for a work.

"Awkward?" Derek suggested.

"Defiantly."

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Cristina and Derek sat at Joe's together waiting for everyone else to get off.

"So Meredith said McVet was at the vet office you guys went to yesterday but she didn't say anything else," Cristina said.

"He's not too smart when it comes to people," Derek told her, sipping his scotch.

"Oh please elaborate."

Derek told her about the encounter and how long it took him to pick up on Meredith's pregnancy.

Cristina started laughing. "Oh that is great. I wish I was there."

"You would have enjoyed yourself," Derek chuckled.

"So are you going to ever propose?" Cristina asked.

"Yes I just don't want her to think it's because of the baby."

"Is it?" she asked, being protective best friend.

"No, I've just been trying to figure out how to ask her and when."

"Well believe me, no matter how you do it she'll say yes," she told him, drinking some of her drink.

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Addison, having found an apartment a few months ago, was at home. Mark was getting some water from the kitchen and sat next to her on the couch and put an arm around her.

."Oh! Did I tell you about Meredith?" Addison asked.

Mark shook his head, "No. What about her?"

"She's pregnant," she told him with a smile, "I'm really happy for her and Derek."

"Wow, that's great," he replied genuinely. Then he thought, 'Hurray for the dirty mistresses!'

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Any suggestions for what the McBaby should be named?

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	13. Chapter 13

With this fic I now have the most reviews I've ever gotten. Yaaay!

Thank you all for the name suggestions and even though you're not going to find out until the next part I'll tell you that Mer is having a girl. I really like krisinmtka's idea to involve Cristina's name sooo that will be her middle name. I need something that goes with Cristina. And Shepherd…

If you're all good I'll put up the next chapter tomorrow :)

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Meredith jumped on the elevator and saw none other than Mark Sloan.

"Hey," he greeted, "How's my favorite dirty mistress? I haven't seen you since before I heard you got that kitten."

Meredith laughed, "I'm good, how are you?"

"I'm great. I heard you're pregnant," he said.

"I am. How are you and Addison doing?" Meredith asked.

"You're asking me? I thought you would be asking her."

"I would but I haven't seen her yet so I'm asking you," she told him.

"We're doing well," he smiled, "I assume you and Derek are wonderful?"

"We are," she grinned.

"Looks like the Dirty Mistresses won," he said and they both laughed. The doors opened revealing Derek.

"This is where I get off. See you later, Meredith."

"Bye."

Mark got off and Derek got on.

"What was that about?" he asked.

"We were just talking."

"And laughing," he said, he was jealous.

Meredith turned to him, the estrogen kicking in like it did with Cristina. "Did you ever think that he's the reason we're together? That because of him and Addison you and I are together? I'm not going to sleep with him! I have you. But he and I are friends. He is McSteamy but you - "she poked his shoulder, "you are McDreamy so you have no reason to be jealous!"

When her little rant was finished the elevator opened and she got off heading to her patients room.

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Callie and George were having dinner. George noticed she was unusually quiet.

"Callie are you ok?" he asked

"Um yeah, I'm fine," she replied.

"Are you sure?" he asked, "You're really quiet."

Callie looked at him for a moment. "I'm late."

"Late for what?" George asked.

"Late, late, George."

"You mean...ohhhh boy," George said as it clicked.

"Yeah."

"Have you taken a test?" he asked.

"Not yet, I haven't had a chance to yet."

"Do you want to be?" he asked, purposefully avoiding the word 'pregnant'

"I don't know. I'll talk to Addison or something tomorrow."

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Meredith and Izzie got home, Derek still had an hour before he would get home, and both girls were planning on going to George's room to vent.

George was still awake, Tiki lying on his chest, when Meredith and Izzie came in, lying down on either side of him.

"Alex is such an ass," Izzie said, "We had a case together and I suggested a course of treatment for the patient but he insisted we did it his way because he MUST be right. After like six hours we ended up doing my treatment and he was such an ass about being wrong! Seriously!"

"Derek is still mad at Sloan. I yelled at Derek in the elevator," Meredith told them.

"Callie might be pregnant," George said.

"Seriously?" Izzie asked.

"She said she's late."

"Has she seen Addison or taken a pregnancy test or whatever?" Meredith asked.

"Not yet. She said she's going to do something tomorrow."

"Are you freaking out?" asked Izzie

"Yes," George replied.

The girls were still in George's room when Derek got home. He was wondering where everyone was when he heard laughter from George's room. Curiously he headed there and pushed open the partially open door.

Meredith finished her story, "It was just like when Cristina freaked out at you during lunch, George. You remember?"

"I do remember."

"Hey, Derek," Izzie greeted, "There's no more room on the bed, sorry."

"That's fine. I was just wondering why you're all in George's bed," he wasn't jealous that Mer was there, just really confused.

"We do this sometimes when one or all of us has a bad day or needs to talk," Meredith told him, "George might be a daddy."

"Meredith!" George exclaimed.

"What? He's not going to tell anyone."

"Does Callie know for sure?" Derek asked, going into the room and sitting in a chair next to the bed near Meredith. Tiki walked over her and hopped in Derek's lap.

"No," Meredith answered.

"She's going to do something tomorrow," Izzie added.

"Alex was a jerk to Izzie today," George told Derek.

"We're not talking to him until he apologizes," Meredith said, "If he's your intern, can you make him do extra not fun stuff until we tell you otherwise?"

Extra not fun stuff... "I'll see what I can do."

"I'm hungry," Meredith said and sat up, "are you going to be ok, George?"

"Yeah," he replied, "thanks guys."

"No problem," Meredith said, she and Derek left – leaving Tiki with George, followed shortly by Izzie who was going to take a shower.

"What do you want to eat?" Derek asked.

"Pancakes," she told him.

"Pancakes?"

"Yes. Pancakes."

Derek started making pancakes for Meredith.

"Seriously," she said, continuing the conversation from the elevator, "You should at least be civil to Mark."

He chuckled, "after you yelled at me in the elevator I realized you were right. He was the reason for the end of my marriage but also the reason I met you and that I should be thankful for."

She smiled at him, "Yes you should."

He smiled back, "I just don't know if we'll be friends again. I'm not the same person I was in New York."

"I'm just asking that you be nice."

"And I will be."

"Good," she grinned.

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George caught up with Callie the next afternoon.

"Hey, Cal. Did you talk to Dr. Montgomery?" he asked.

"No need," she told him.

He cocked his head a little, "Why not?"

"My period started this morning so I'm not pregnant," she explained. "George, do you want kids?"

"I do…maybe in a few years but I don't think I'm ready right now…"

Callie let out a breath, "Oh god, good. Neither am I," she laughed nervously.

"I'd like to…with you, eventually," he said.

Callie smiled, "Me too."

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Meredith was six weeks pregnant when she got time to talk to the chief. She and Derek went to his office and knocked on the door.

"Come in," he answered.

They went in, "Hi chief," Meredith greeted.

"Meredith, Derek," he smiled, "What can I do for you?"

They sat in the chairs in front of his desk, "Well you probably heard already but we wanted to tell you," Derek told him

"Tell me what?"

"I'm pregnant," she told him.

"I didn't hear that," he said, taking off his glasses.

"I found out last week and with everything I forgot to tell you. I've seen Addison and she said everything is good."

Webber smiled, "congratulations."

"Thank you."

"Thanks."

"Unless Addison says otherwise I want you to go on leave by your eight month," the chief told Meredith.

She nodded, "Ok. Should I tell Dr. Bailey?"

"Yes, so she and I can work on getting you more hours for the ones you'll miss when you on leave."

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"We should tell my mom," Derek said after they left the chief's office.

"I kinda wanted to wait until I was 12 weeks to tell any other people," Meredith said, "Its probably silly but the risk of miscarriage falls after the third month and – "

Derek cut off her rambling with a kiss. "I get it. We can wait," he smiled.

They continued down the hall and ran into Cristina and Burke at the nurses' station.

"Hey," Burke smiled, "The two people we wanted to see."

"What can we do for you, Burke?" Derek asked.

"Meredith, will you be my maid of honor?" Cristina asked, "Since you're my person."

"Of course!" Meredith replied hugging Cristina.

"What did I say about hugging?" Cristina said trying to pull away.

Meredith finally let go, "And I said I'm pregnant so I can hug."

"I don't like that excuse."

Derek and Burke chuckled.

"Shepherd, I wanted to ask you to be my best man," Burke said.

Derek was surprised, "me?"

"Yes."

"I would be honored," Derek smiled.

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With Cristina and Shepherd…

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	14. Chapter 14

IslandGurl90 – That's a cute name but Madelyn is one of Derek's niece's names.

Tayababy – Evelyn…that's cute. There's a niece named Eve…but maybe Evelyn could work.

Doing the venting with George was fun. I thought it would be cool to show that they still needed to do it even tho everyone is supposed to be happy.

Oh! And some good news – I didn't fail Shakespeare! lol

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Meredith had an ultrasound scheduled with Addison in about ten minutes. She was a little past 12 weeks today and Derek was going to get to see the baby. She didn't have anything she had to do before seeing Addison so she went to an on call room and pulled out her cell phone.

"Little Moose, how are you?" Steve asked, answering the phone.

"I'm great, Steve," she smiled, "How are you?"

"Good, good," he replied, "So you're calling meaning something big happened. Are you finally getting married?"

"No not yet but I wanted to tell you I'm pregnant," Meredith smiled every time she said that.

"Seriously?" he asked.

"Seriously," she confirmed.

"Congratulations! With McDreamy as the father you are going to have a gorgeous child."

Meredith giggled, "Thank you."

"How far along are you?" Steve asked.

"12 weeks," Meredith told him, "I have to go meet Addison for an appointment and ultrasound I just wanted to call you quickly."

"Have fun. Send me pictures and tell Derek I say hi."

"I will. Thanks."

Derek met Meredith and Addison in an exam room. Addison did a quick pelvic exam making sure everything was good.

"I called Steve. He says hi," Meredith told him.

"I called my mom. She's absolutely ecstatic," Derek smiled.

Addison chuckled softly, "Knowing your mother she probably told you to watch Meredith like a hawk."

"She told me to make sure the mother of her newest grandchild is treated like a queen," he reported.

Mer smiled, "You already do that and if you went all psycho overprotective daddy I'd have to kill you."

They all laughed.

"I want to draw some blood quickly to run some routine tests," Addison told her once they calmed from the laughter.

Meredith nodded, "This must be when I begin to turn into a human pin cushion."

Derek laced his fingers with Meredith's. Addison chuckled, "Yeah, unfortunately."

After Addison drew blood, which Meredith claims she didn't feel, she set up the ultrasound. Meredith lifted her scrub top to revel her stomach and Addison put the gel on her lower stomach.

"You ready?" Addison asked, "The baby looks a lot different than it did six weeks ago."

"Yes," they both replied at the same time.

Addison smiled and moved the ultrasound probe over Meredith's abdomen. The baby appeared on the screen and Meredith and Derek's eyes were glued to the screen.

"It looks big on the screen but the baby is about three and half inches long and it weighs about 14 ounces."

"Wow," Derek whispered in amazement, "Mer, we did that."

Meredith smiled, tearing up a little, "We did."

"Everything looks to be developing nicely," Addison told them, zooming in and looking over the baby.

Addison and Derek turned to Meredith as they heard her sniff. She wiped her eyes and smiled at them.

"I'm ok," she told them, "I'm happy. Happy, pregnant Meredith is hormonal."

"It's completely normal," smiled Addison, softly rubbing her arm.

Derek smiled his McDreamy smile to Meredith and kissed her softly, "I love you."

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The next day Meredith had off. She slept through Derek leaving for work but woke up early for a day off and went to visit her mother.

"Hi mom," Meredith smiled when she sat next to her mom in the sitting room.

"Meredith, shouldn't you be at home?" she asked, "You're sick."

"I'm not sick, mom. I'm not a kid," Meredith told her softly.

"No," Ellis whispered to herself more than to Meredith, "You're not."

"I'm a doctor now, mom," reminded Meredith.

"That's right. And your boyfriend is a neurosurgeon."

Meredith smiled, "That's right and I need to tell you something."

"What is it?" Ellis asked.

"I'm pregnant," she told her, nervous and at the same time wondering why she was telling her mother if she wasn't going to remember.

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Meredith went to the hospital to meet Derek, Cristina and Burke for lunch. She sat down at the table with them, next to Derek.

"How is your mom?" Derek asked.

"Great," Meredith replied, stealing half of his sandwich, "She was lucid for a little while. Long enough to remember you and for me to tell her I'm pregnant. She congratulated me then went back and decided I was her intern."

"That's good, she was lucid for a while," Burke said.

"It is. But we're not here to talk about my mother we're here to talk wedding," said Meredith.

"Izzie is collaborating with my mother on flowers, food and Izzie is keeping track of who is coming," Cristina told her.

"We got permission to have it at the park and Joe said he would be more than happy to host the reception," Meredith said, "You, me, and Izzie go to the dress shop next week to finalize the dresses and final fittings for you guys. I will have a final fitting a week before the wedding since I'll be getting bigger," the girls looked to Burke

"Next month Shepherd, O'Malley and I get our tuxes fitted," he told them.

"Rings?" Derek asked.

"Next Wednesday," Cristina told him.

"Then I think we have everything covered," smiled Meredith.

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Sorry it was kinda short. I'll be posting a new chapter just about every day now.

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	15. Chapter 15

4 reviews on chapter 14? Awwwww!

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"No Alex! I am tired of you being such an ass! We are finished!" Izzie yelled for everyone around the nurses' station to hear.

Izzie threw her half full, or half empty depending on how you look at it, coffee cup at him and stalked off to the gallery. Cristina and Meredith were sitting in there watching Derek and George perform surgery.

Izzie sat next to her friends, "I broke up with Alex."

"Again?" Meredith asked. At four and half months pregnant a lot more of her was belly.

"He is such an ass. I couldn't take it anymore."

"Good for you," Cristina replied, "throw his ass to the curb."

"Meredith, aren't you supposed to find out what you're having today?" Izzie asked.

"Yeah, we go see Addison when Derek's done with the surgery," replied Meredith, nodding to the surgery below them.

"I still think its weird that your boyfriend's ex-wife is your OB/GYN," commented Cristina, "And that you two are friends."

"It is a little weird but it's nice," Mer ran her hand over her stomach, "whoa."

"What?" Cristina asked, sitting forward to see if she missed something Derek did.

"Feel this," She grabbed Cristina's hand and put it on the side of her stomach.

"Whoa," Cristina echoed then laughed, "Meredith, your kid is kicking me."

Meredith giggled. "Izzie, give me your hand."

Izzie put her hand just above Cristina's.

"Wait just a second," she told them. A few moments later the baby kicked where their hands were, "Addison said she would start moving around soon and that it would be easier for other people to feel because I'm small."

Derek noticed George kept glancing up to the gallery. Without looking up he asked, "Dr. O'Malley is the gallery more interesting than the brain?"

"Yes…um no. I think Izzie and Cristina are feeling your baby move," George turned his attention back to the surgery."

Derek looked up to the gallery and saw Cristina and Izzie each with a hand on Meredith's stomach. He saw Cristina say something to Meredith and Izzie laughing. Meredith saw him looking at her and smiled. He smiled back but with the mask on it just ended up looking like his McDreamy look.

He went back to the surgery, "Not sure about more interesting, Dr. O'Malley but defiantly more exciting."

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Later that day both Meredith and Derek were writing notes in charts at the nurses' station.

"The parties are tomorrow night," Meredith said, referring to Cristina and Burke's separate bachelorette and bachelor parties, "Addison, Callie, and Bailey are going with us."

"Bailey is going with you?" Derek asked, looking up from his chart.

Bailey was passing by, "Yes I am going with them. I may have a child but I can still party."

Meredith giggled after Bailey left.

"We're all meeting at Joe's tonight," Derek told her, "When do you get off?"

"An hour before you do," she smiled, moving a little closer to him.

Mark walked up and stood next to Meredith, handing his chart to a nurse behind the desk.

"So, Addison hasn't told me yet," he leaned against the counter talking more to Meredith than Derek, "Am I having a little niece or nephew?"

Derek closed his chart, finished, and handed it to the nurse. Putting his pen in his pocket he smiled.

"A niece," he told Mark as he headed to his next patient.

Meredith smiled; Derek was accepting Mark back into his life.

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Derek got to Joe's and saw Meredith sitting at the bar next to Cristina, Izzie, and Addison. Mark was sitting on the other side of Addison and Burke was still in surgery. George and Callie were at a table near by and Alex was apparently restricted to the other side of the bar.

He went over to the group at the bar and sat next to Meredith. She turned to him and kissed him hello, he ran a hand over her stomach.

Cristina caught his eye and gave him a look telling him to do something. He nodded back telling her he would.

"Hey Joe, could I get the usual?" he asked.

"Sure thing Dr. Shepherd," Joe replied pouring him a drink.

Meredith turned listening to something Izzie was saying. Derek moved his head next to hers, his lips near her ear.

"This is where we met," he whispered, getting her attention again, "and re-met."

Meredith grinned, "It is. Among other things."

The way he was sitting she couldn't turn to look at him. He pulled a small black box out of his pocket.

"So in the spirit of many, many things happening here," he opened the box and placed it in front of her on the bar, "will you marry me?"

Meredith looked from the ring to him and back again unaware of everyone that was watching them. She gave him a huge smile "yes."

Derek slipped the ring on her ring finger and kissed her eliciting the applause of their friends and everyone close enough to know what was going on. When they broke apart they were both smiling.

"I thought you were going to chicken out," Cristina said.

"You knew?!" Meredith asked. Derek wrapped his arms around her and lightly kissed her jaw line

"He dragged me with him to buy the ring," she told her friend, "apparently he needed the best friend's opinion."

Meredith just nodded as Derek started kissing her neck.

Mark chuckled, "someone's getting distracted."

"Yeah…we're gonna go home," Meredith said, pulling away from Derek slightly, "We'll see you tomorrow."

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	16. Chapter 16

MerDer4ever – I thought it was so cute to propose there too. I was so excited when I thought of it :D

Ok this is the day after the last part. The aftermath of the parties and, yes mcobsessed, Bang's wedding! Yaaaaay!!

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Derek got home from Burke's bachelor party at about 3am. Bailey was asleep on the couch. He went up to his bedroom only to find Meredith asleep with Cristina and Addison. Cristina was in the middle and there was just enough room…

The first thing Derek heard when he woke up was Cristina saying "There's a boy in bed with us."

"I don't know how I got in bed with you," Addison mumbled, petting Tiki who decided to sleep at the top of her head, "or a boy."

Meredith snuggled into Derek more, his hand resting on her stomach under her shirt, "You guys were really drunk. Izzie went to bed, Callie passed out in George's room and Bailey crashed on the couch but you guys thought it would be fun to have, like, a sleepover."

"When was the boy invited?" Cristina asked.

"When the boy got home and wanted to go to bed and there was nowhere else to sleep," Derek replied against Meredith's neck, his eyes still closed, "But before going to bed left aspirin and water next to the girls who were drunk."

Cristina reached over Addison grabbing the aspirin and water and taking some before laying down again.

"Mer, would it be wrong to say I love your fiancée?" Cristina asked.

"Not in this situation," Meredith replied.

"Where's the bathroom?" Addison asked, "My bladder just realized how much I drank last night."

"Right across the hall," Derek and Meredith said at the same time.

"That's just creepy," Cristina said, "try not to do that again."

Addison got up and Izzie came in.

"Good morning!" she handed a cup of coffee to Addison as she went to the bathroom and gave one to Cristina who finally sat up.

"Thank you, Dr. Stevens," Addison replied, rubbing her forehead,"and I don't want to know how you're so cheerful right now."

"Its Cristina's wedding day!" exclaimed Izzie, "We need to start getting ready!"

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Meredith and Izzie along with Cristina's mother were helping with Cristina's hair and make up – not that much was needed.

"Cristina, I can't believe you're getting married," Izzie said.

"Neither can I," her mother agreed.

"Shut up, mother," Cristina replied.

Meredith smiled, "I knew she would."

Izzie looked at Cristina, "Ok we need something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue."

"The clip in Cristina's hair was mine so it is old," Cristina's mother said.

"She's borrowing my earrings," Meredith added.

"My garter is blue," Cristina told them, "And it's new. Does that count?"

"It could but I have something for you," Burke's mom said, coming into the room. She handed Cristina a long, thin box. "When I married Preston's father, his mother gave me a bracelet and I wanted to do the same for you."

"Thank you Mrs. Burke," Cristina said sincerely, taking the box.

Izzie and Meredith gathered around to see the diamond tennis bracelet.

"Wow, Cristina," breathed Meredith.

"That's beautiful," Izzie said.

Cristina's mother helped put on the bracelet.

"Perfect," smiled Mrs. Burke

Burke and Cristina stood at the altar in front of their friends, coworkers and family in the middle of the beautiful park. Meredith and Izzie were standing on Cristina's side, Derek and George were standing with Burke. Everyone was seated and the ceremony began.

"Preston, please repeat after me," the justice of the peace instructed, "I, Preston Burke, take Cristina to be my lawfully wedded wife."

"I, Preston Burke, take Cristina to be my lawfully wedded wife," he repeated, both of them smiling.

"To have and to hold, to honor and to cherish," prompted the justice

Burke's smile widened, "To have and to hold, to honor and cherish."

"In good times and bad, in sickness and in health. For all eternity."

"In good times and bad, in sickness and in health. For all eternity."

The Justice of the Peace turned to Cristina and had her repeat the same vows. Meredith kept looking past them at Derek, catching his eye and smiling. They would be doing this in not too long.

"I, Cristina Yang, take Preston to be my lawfully wedded husband…"

Cristina finished repeating her vows and the Justice moved on. "Do you have rings as a sign of this unity?"

Burke nodded and turned to Derek. Derek pulled them out of his vest pocket and gave Burke's to Cristina and vice versa.

"Preston, place the ring on Cristina's finger and say 'with this ring I thee wed'."

Burke did as the Justice of the Peace said and Cristina followed, following the instructions of the officiator of the wedding.

"Does anyone here have an objection to these two being married?" he asked.

No one said anything and the Justice opened his mouth to speak again when they heard, "We need a doctor!!"

The twelve surgeons scrambled over to where the woman had slumped unconscious in her seat. Much like their first date, Burke reached the woman first. Using just his ear he checked her heart beat and breathe sounds.

"She has a collapsed lung, we need an ambulance and a pen, straw, something," Burke ordered.

Thankfully there were 11 other doctors there. Mark quickly took apart a pen and handed it to Burke who put it into the woman's chest reinflating the lung.

About an hour later, somehow Burke ended up in surgery with the other surgeons watching from the gallery and the parents and other guests waiting in the hall outside the gallery. Burke's mother disappeared popped into the gallery with a harassed looking Justice of the Peace.

"Mrs. Burke, what are you doing here?" Derek asked from between Meredith and Izzie.  
"He never pronounced them husband and wife," she told them.

Cristina hit the intercom, "Burke."  
"Yes?" he replied, not looking up from his work.

"Baby, you need to listen for a moment. The Justice of the Peace never declared you two married," Burke's mom told him.

"Let's do it now," Burke said.

The Justice took a moment to compose himself and spoke, everyone in the gallery and OR hearing him, "Um alright. Preston Burke, Cristina Yang by the power vested in me by the State of Washington I pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride as soon as you finish surgery."

The gallery and OR erupted into applause.

"Oh this is so the best wedding ever," Cristina said.

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The surgery was completed, Burke and Cristina kissed in front of everyone which they should have done three hours ago and everyone went over to Joe's for the slightly late reception

Shortly after everyone got there Burke's mother decided it was time for the best man and maid of honor speeches. Derek went first. He stood and tapped his glass with a knife to get everyone's attention.

"I met both Preston and Cristina at the hospital. Preston and I became not quite friends but we were colleagues, acquaintances. I found out about their relationship through the regular hospital gossip and I wasn't sure it would last but after they made up from their fight and when Meredith told me Cristina and Preston were getting married I knew they would last. I wish you guys all the happiness."

The room applauded and Derek sat down. Meredith stood and once the applause died down Meredith started talking.

"Cristina and I were assigned to the same resident along with George, Izzie and Alex and we all became a family. Cristina and I are best friends. I'm her person and she is my sister. Preston," that defiantly felt weird to say, "makes her very happy and I hope they have that happiness forever – they certainly deserve it."

Next came food and cake and dancing. Meredith was sitting with Izzie watching George and Callie dance among the other people when Derek stood in front of her and held out his hand.

"Will you dance with me?"

Meredith smiled, "I thought you don't dance in public."

"I make exceptions."

Meredith stood, grinning, and took his hand. He led her to the dancing area and wrapped his arms around her waist. Mer looped her arms around his neck.

"I don't do this often," Derek told her, just looking into her eyes.

"Dance in public?"

"Mmhmm. But dancing with you is very enjoyable."

Cristina was at the bar getting a drink when a woman came up to Burke. She was noticeably drunk.

"Hellooo Preston," she slurred.

"Monica?" he asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I was invited and I wanted to see you," she replied getting way too close to him.

Cristina saw this woman hitting on her husband and walked up to her.

"Hey," she tapped Monica's shoulder.

Monica turned around, "Yes?"

Cristina didn't say anything but instead punched her. In Monica's drunken state she stumbled and fell on her butt. "Keep you hands off my husband."

Everyone had seen the exchange. Meredith rested her forehead on Derek's shoulder.

"Leave it to Cristina to punch someone at her own wedding reception."

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The next part is about a month later and there will be a biiiiig surprise for Izzie. Wanna know what it is? Review:)

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	17. Chapter 17

Wow! Thank you all for your awesome reviews! I'm so glad you added the wedding. Sara (OnTheSparrow'sWing) gave me the idea for Cristina punching that chick so the entire reception was written around that.

Now is the surprise I was talking about.

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About a month after the wedding Izzie got a phone call.

"Dr. Stevens?"

"Yes, that's me."

"This is Donna Dougherty..."

Izzie thought for a moment then remembered the woman. "Mrs. Dougherty, how are you?"

"I'm fine. I was calling to ask you a favor," she sounded nervous, "It's a really big favor, you don't have to say yes…"

"What is it?"

"It's Hannah. She has Leukemia and she needs a bone marrow transplant. The doctors said to see if you would be willing to be tested. It's just a blood test."

"Of course I would!"

The phone call lasted about half an hour longer - Donna told Izzie all about Hannah and what had been going on. Izzie asked Donna to fax the medical records to the chief promised to talk to him and see about getting Hannah move there seeing as Seattle Grace was one of the leading hospitals.

The next day at work Izzie went to see the chief and she explained the situation to him. Her blood test showed she was a match to donate bone marrow to Hannah. He told her he would make all the arrangements and inform Bailey then he strongly suggested she tell her friends what was going on.

That night, after work, Izzie had Derek, Meredith, Cristina, Callie and George all sit on the couch or near by chairs in the living room.

"What's going on Izzie?" Meredith asked, Izzie was pacing.

She stopped pacing and faced them all. "I have a daughter. I had her when I was 16 and I was growing up in a trailer park working to pay my mother's bills. I didn't want that for my child so I gave her up for adoption."

"Why are you telling us this now?" George asked.

"Her mom called me yesterday. Hannah has leukemia and she needs a bone marrow transplant. The chief has her med records and we did a blood test."

"You're a match," Cristina finished.

Izzie nodded. "They're transferring Hannah here in the next couple days. Tomorrow I'm getting the pre-transplant tests done. Tests of my heart, lungs, kidneys, everything. There's no reason I shouldn't be able to donate. So once all of that is done they're going to harvest."

"How can you sound so calm," Callie wondered aloud. Tiki was stretched out on her lap.

"I'm not," she shrugged, "I was planning on baking after I told you guys."

"Why don't you knit instead?" Cristina asked.

"Because I'm freaking out not becoming freakin celibate!"

With that Izzie stormed to the kitchen and started getting out the ingredients to make cupcakes. Everyone looked at Meredith.

"Me? Seriously?"

"Dark and twisty," said George as an explanation.

"I am not dark and twisty. I'm five and a half months pregnant."

"You used to be before babies made you toxic," replied Cristina.

Derek stood up, "I'll go talk to her," he told them then went to the kitchen.

Izzie was mixing together ingredients to make her cupcakes when Derek came in and leaned against the counter.

"Why are you freaking out?" he asked gently in the 'I'm amazing and I want to help' voice.

Izzie looked at him. "I have never met my daughter before and the first time we meet is because she has cancer. Everyone finds out I have a daughter because she has cancer and I'm the only one who can save her. Do you know how scary that is?"

"Actually I do." Izzie didn't expect that response.

She looked at him waiting for him to continue.

"When I was 10 my cousin got leukemia. He was 12 and out of everyone in my family my uncle and I were the only ones who matched. My uncle didn't pass one of the pre-transplant tests so it was all on me."

"Were you scared?" Izzie asked, going back to making her cupcakes.

"I was terrified. I didn't really understand why they had to take something from inside of me with a huge needle to make my cousin better but I knew it would be selfish of me not to do it. It's ok to be scared but everyone is here for you. You don't have to bake."

"I know," Izzie replied with a smile, "Thanks."

He returned the smile, "No problem."

"I'm just going to make a few cupcakes."

He nodded and went back to the others.

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Today was the day. Izzie had passed all the pre-transplant tests and Hannah was coming to Seattle Grace. Today. Right now actually. The oncology attending and an intern were meeting the helicopter and Bailey had given her the day to spend with Hannah or Hannah's parents or to go home. Right now she was sitting in the locker room. Her daughter was here. She was going to meet her daughter.

Hannah was all settled in and word got around from Donna that they wanted to see Izzie so she was paged. Donna and her husband, Shawn, were waiting outside Hannah's room.

"Dr. Stevens," smiled Donna.

"Please, call me Izzie."  
"Izzie. It's nice to meet you in person," Shawn extended a hand.

Izzie shook his hand along with Donna's, "I wish it were under better circumstances. Dr. Webber and Dr. Bailey told me Hannah already has the central line and she has one more day of chemo and radiation before she can get the transplant."

Shawn nodded, "Yes. Dr. Bailey said everything would be started tomorrow. Hannah's been waiting to meet you."

Izzie hesitated, "Does she know who I am?"

"We told her," Donna replied, "She got suspicious when neither of us were matches and we had to track you down."

"She's awake now if you want to go in and meet her," Shawn offered.

"Um, yes. Thank you."

Izzie entered Hannah's room feeling very awkward. She saw her daughter laying in bed, a pink bandana on her head. She looked over when Izzie came in.

"Hi," Izzie greeted nervously.

"Hi!" Hannah replied, "So you're my mom."

"I'm your mother. Donna is your mom."

"What's the difference?" Hannah asked.

Izzie walked closer to the bed, "I just gave birth to you. Donna raised you and took care of you."

"I've been thinking about meeting you for, like, the past three days and all the time I was trying not to be cliché when I asked why you didn't keep me."

Izzie smiled, that was an odd thing to be thinking about when you're about to get a bone marrow transplant. Sitting in a chair next to the bed she told the story one more time – to the person it mattered most to.

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"Where's Izzie today?" Alex asked George over chart notes.

"With her daughter," George replied not thinking.

"Her…daughter?" Alex was confused.

"Oh she didn't tell you…" and George felt like a tool.

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Meredith had some free time and decided to go see Izzie and Hannah. Hannah's parents had probably gone to get some food. She went into the room, Izzie was sitting on the edge of Hannah's bed an they were laughing.

Hannah saw her first, "Hi!"

Meredith smiled, moving into the room more, "Hi."

"Hannah, this is my friend and one of my roommates, Meredith," Izzie smiled, "Mer, this is my daughter, Hannah."

"It's nice to meet you, Hannah."

"Nice to meet you too," she replied, "you're having a baby?"

It was hard to miss Meredith's belly now, even in scrubs. "I am. I'm having a girl."

"So by association and our friendship family Hannah is going to have a cousin," Izzie giggled.

"Cool," Hannah smiled a smile like Izzie's, "How far along are you?"

"Five and a half months so I'm more than half way there."

"Do you know what you're going to name her?"

"Not yet. My fiancée and I still have to talk about that."

"You met him, Hannah," Izzie said, "Mer's fiancée."

"The really nice guy with the hair?" Hannah asked, "His name is….Derek."

Meredith laughed, "That's him,"

"If you're engaged and pregnant why aren't you living with Derek?"

"Hannah!"

Mer smiled, "its ok. I'd want to know why too. When Derek moved to Seattle he bought a whole bunch of land and just had a trailer because he didn't know what he was going to do with it. His one brother in law is an architect and he designed a house for us before Christmas but we didn't start building the house until a few months ago."

"So everyone is staying at your house?"

"Yes. We hope the house is finished before the baby is born," she replied. Her pager went off, "I have to go. I'll see you later, Hannah."

Meredith left as Bailey was coming in.

"Stevens, I thought I could find you here."

Izzie turned to her, "Do you need me to do something, Dr. Bailey?"

"No," Bailey replied but before she could continue Hannah interrupted.

"Do you need _me_ to do something, Dr. Bailey?" She giggled.

Bailey walked to the bed with a smiled, "Now that you mention it Hannah, could you go write up the post op notes on my patients?"

"I can if it doesn't have to make any sense," Hannah replied.

Bailey laughed, "Never mind then, I'll get another intern to do it."

Izzie smiled, "So what did you need from me or us?"

"I wanted to go over to procedure with you both," she told them.

"Shouldn't her parents be here?" Izzie asked.

"I already spoke with them and they said to go ahead and talk to the two of you," Bailey replied, "Now tomorrow, Izzie we're going to prep you and take you to the OR to harvest the bone marrow. You'll have a local anesthesia. I'll insert a needle into the cavity of your rear hip bone and extract the bone marrow from there. I'm going to extract it from both cavities to make sure we have enough."

Izzie nodded, "I've read up on it. Afterwards I'll get Tylenol and be a little sore.

"Right," Bailey said. Then turning to Hannah she changed to her kid tone, "Then you, Miss Hannah, will get the bone marrow through an IV. It's not going to be fun after that. For a few weeks you will be very tired and your immune system won't be working very well. All your visitors will need to wash their hands and wear surgical masks so you don't get sick."

"So it's like when I was getting chemo," Hannah equivocated.

Bailey nodded, "That's right."

"Can Izzie and Meredith and Derek and George and Cristina still come and visit?" she asked.

"Of course."

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Izzie was leaving Hannah's room to get some lunch when Alex pulled her into an on call room.

"Alex?! What are you doing?" Izzie yelled.

"Why didn't you tell me you had a kid?" Alex asked.

"I didn't tell anyone, Alex," she told him, "I had to tell because she has leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. From me. I broke up with you. Leave me alone."

With that Izzie left the room.

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SURPRISE!!

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	18. Chapter 18

OMG! Two updates in one day!!

Mrs. Derek McDreamy – thank you sooo much!

I have a total of 108 reviews – I love you guys sooo much!!

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Alex decided to pay a visit to Hannah. He found out her room number and went in finding her awake.

"Hey," Alex greeted.

"Hi," replied Hannah, "Are you Alex?"

Alex smiled, "Yes I am. How did you know?"

Hannah shrugged, "I've met everyone else. Cristina said you're evil spawn."

Alex laughed, "Yeah, she calls me that sometimes."

"Why?"

"Because she thinks I'm a butthead sometimes."

Hannah giggled, "Cristina said you and Izzie were going out but you broke up."

"Yeah that was my fault."

"Were you a butthead?"

Alex sighed, "I was."

"Wanna know a secret?" she asked, looking around to make sure no one was looking.

He leaned in, "Yeah."

"She still likes you. She's getting the bone marrow harvest tomorrow so you should be the opposite of a butthead and help her out tomorrow."

"That is great advice, kid."

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Alex took Hannah's advice and the next day went to see Izzie about an hour after the bone marrow harvest. Bailey hadn't discharged her yet so he went to her room.

"What do you want, Alex?" Izzie asked.

"I just wanted to see if you needed anything," he replied, "And I wanted to apologize. I'm sorry for being an ass."

Izzie studied him for a moment, "I want some chocolate and I'll think about forgiving you."

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Meredith and Derek were in bed facing each other, Derek's hand was resting on her stomach and they were just enjoying each other's presence.

"What should we name her?" Meredith asked, running her fingers through his hair, "I'm almost six months along and we haven't decided."

"What do you want to name her?" he asked, not telling her they haven't really talked about it at all.

"I wanted to have her middle name be Cristina," Mer said a little unsure about what Derek would think, "Because she's always been there and –"

"I like it," he interrupted with a smile, "So something that goes with Cristina."

"Chloe?" Meredith asked, "I liked that name the best when I was younger."

Derek tried it out in his head, "I don't know. It seems…"

"Pink hair and piercings?" Meredith finished.

"Yeah," he chuckled.

"Well I had pink hair when I started liking it," she told him.

"Pink?" he raised in eyebrow.

"And I wore a lot of black. But we're not talking about that right now. Our daughter needs a name. Your nieces already have a lot of the names I like. Kaylie, Madeline, Sophie, Jessie."

"What about Bailey?" He joked.

"No," she giggled, "What about Emily? It's sort of like my mom's name and your mom's name combined.

"With an 'M' just thrown in there?" Derek smiled, moving his hand over her stomach.

"Yes. Emily Cristina Shepherd," she stated proudly.

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Meredith went to visit Hannah one more time. She went into her room and smiled. Hannah was sitting up and watching TV.

"Hi Hannah," Meredith greeted, standing next to her bed.

"Meredith!" she smiled, excited to see her, "How are you?"

"I'm fine. More importantly, how are you?"

Hannah shrugged, "I'm happy cuz I get to go home but I'm going to miss all you guys."

"Well I'm sure you can always come and visit."

"Yeah. Mom and Dad said I could come whenever you guys invited me."

"Well I'm going to invite you to my wedding," Meredith told her.

"Seriously?" Hannah asked. Over her three week stay she had picked up the word.

Meredith nodded, "And you can meet all of Derek's nieces and nephews."

"And Emily! You said you were getting married after you had the baby," Hannah got excited.

"That's right. Just three more months now," Mer smiled, she put her hand on her stomach. "I think she knows we're talking about her."

"Can I feel?"

"Yes," Meredith took Hannah's hand and put it right below her belly button.

Hannah grinned, "That's so cool."

They both looked at the door when they heard someone else come in.

"Hi Derek!" Hannah greeted.

"Hey Hannah. I heard you're leaving today."

Hannah nodded, "Mom and dad are working on the paperwork or whatever. Guess what?"

"What?" Derek replied.

"Meredith said she's gonna invite me to your wedding."

"You're going to their wedding?" George asked, he and Cristina coming in as well.

"Yeah!" Hannah exclaimed.

About half an hour later Izzie and Hannah's parents came in. Derek, Meredith, George, and Cristina were all still in there. To the dismay of Hannah's fan club Hannah had to go home. Izzie said she'd call and Meredith told Donna and Shawn they'd all get an invitation to the wedding. Everyone said their goodbye's and Hannah went home.

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Yaaaay BabyShepherd has a name!

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	19. Chapter 19

Thanks for your awesome reviews everyone. Merry Christmas Eve!!

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George and Derek were in Derek and Meredith's room putting together a small crib and a changing table one afternoon.

"So when will the house be ready?" George asked.

"About four months if everything goes smoothly," Derek replied, "I would have liked for it to be done in two months so you and Izzie wouldn't have to share in the experience of a newborn."

"Well we don't sleep much now as it is and Izzie and I are both excited."

Derek chuckled, "Is that why Izzie dragged Meredith out shopping today?"

"Yep. She decided Meredith needed new clothes – which I guess she does – and you guys needed baby stuff."

"We need lots of baby stuff," Derek agreed.

Izzie and Meredith got home around 5 with a ton of new clothes for Meredith and clothes, toys, a stroller, car seat and a few other things for the baby. The girls put the bigger things in the lounge across from the living room and the clothes and toys in Meredith's room. George and Derek had just finished putting together the crib and changing table.

"Hey," Derek smiled to Meredith.

"Hi," she replied, putting the bags of clothes she got on the bed, "Thanks for making me fat."

"Oook," Izzie pulled George out of the room, "let's go get something to eat."

"You're not fat, Mer," he ran a hand over her stomach, "You're pregnant and beautiful."

"I'm seven months pregnant," she pointed out, "I don't feel beautiful. I feel fat."

Derek kissed he softly, "believe me, Mer. You are beautiful."

Meredith grinned, "You're biased," she told him before kissing him again.

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Meredith and Derek came down a couple hours later and found Izzie, George and Callie – who had come over after her shift – in the kitchen.

There was a knock on the door and Izzie, who had just put some more cupcakes in the oven, went to answer the door.

"Um, hi Dr. Montgomery."

"Is Meredith home?" Addison asked somewhat nervously.

"Yeah, come in," Izzie said letting the slightly strangely behaving Addison inside then closing the door, "Everyone's in the kitchen."

Addison followed Izzie to the kitchen. George and Callie were sitting at the table playing a card game. Meredith was frosting cupcakes and Derek was watching and giving instruction which earned him chocolate frosting on his nose.

"Dr. Montgomery," George said looking up, "hi."

Addison chuckled, "Everyone is so surprised to see me. I need to talk to you, Meredith," she said still sounding a little nervous.

"Sure. Derek, you better not eat the frosting," Meredith put down the frosting knife and headed out of the kitchen with Addison.

They went into the lounge across from the living room which currently housed the stroller, car seat, swing, and baby carrier all still boxed.

"What's up?" Meredith asked.

Addison looked like she might either cry or explode, "I'm pregnant," she told Mer not as calmly as she would have liked.

"Seriously?" Meredith asked with a small smile.

Addison nodded, "I confirmed it myself. Meredith, I'm pregnant."

"Is this bad?" asked Mer, so she knew how she was supposed to react.

"I don't know!" Addison exclaimed, her voice getting louder the more she freaked out, "I just found out and it's incredibly overwhelming and you're my only female friend here and I just need to freak out a little bit because I am pregnant!!"

Everyone in the kitchen had heard that and exchanged glances.

"Have you told Mark yet?" Meredith tried to calm her down.

"No we haven't talked about anything even close to having kids."

Meredith looked at Addison, "Talk to him, tell him you're pregnant. I'm sure he'll be happy and you will make a great mom."

"You think so?" she asked, her uncertainty showing.

"If everyone thinks I will be a good mom then you defiantly will be," Meredith smiled.

Addison took a few breaths, feeling better now. "You're right."

"Do you want some cupcakes? They're chocolate, Izzie made them," Meredith offered.

Addison took in the time. Mark was still working for about another two hours, "Yes. Thank you."

The pair went back to the kitchen and everyone in there pretended they didn't hear anything.

Addison sat at the table, "I know how loud I got and that you all know I'm pregnant."

"Congratulations, Addie," Derek was the first to say. He was happy for her. In that moment he realized that he and Addison were destined to be friends and this was the life they were supposed to have.

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Mark got home to find Addison sitting on the couch staring into space.

"Hey Addie, what's wrong?" he asked coming to sit next to her.

"Nothings wrong, really," she looked at him, "I'm pregnant."

"You are?" His eyes got big with surprise.

Addison nodded, "Six weeks."

"Wow," he whispered, "I'm gonna be a dad."

Addison smiled a little, "So you want this?"

"Since you told me Meredith was pregnant. I've always wanted a family with you we just never talked about it," he put his hand on her stomach, "This is wonderful."

Addison gave him a full blown smile. Meredith was right. "I love you, Mark."

"I love you too, Addison," he replied before kissing her.

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Derek sat at a table in Joe's with Mark of all people. He didn't expect to be sitting with his former best friend, current almost friend, after work with neither significant other there.

"Addie told us last night that she's pregnant," Derek said, sipping his scotch.

"Yeah," Mark sipped his beer, "Who is 'us'?"

Derek chuckled, "well she came over to freak out at Meredith but she got really loud. I was in the kitchen with George, Callie, and Izzie and we heard."

"When Meredith told you she was pregnant did you feel like everything in the world was suddenly right?" Mark asked.

Derek nodded, "Yes."

There were silent for a few minutes before Mark spoke again, "Who would have thought that we would be dads?"

"Not me," Derek replied, "But the second I saw Meredith I knew I wanted a family with her."

"Don't punch me again but I felt the same way when I saw Addison."

Derek smiled, "Its water under the bridge."

Mark laughed. "What's funny?" Derek asked.

"Oh when you went on that fishing trip Meredith messed up the saying. She said water under the thing or whatever," explained Mark.

"Yep," he smiled. "So we're going to be fathers."

"We are. I'll have to take notes on what you do with your kid so I know what not to do when you mess up," Mark joked.

Derek laughed, "Oh so you think you're going to be perfect?"

"Aren't I always?" he replied with a smile.

Addison and Meredith walked into the bar to see Mark and Derek laughing together over drinks. Addison turned to Meredith with a smile.

"They're just about friends again."

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Next, I'm going to combine the last two parts and put them up probably tomorrow then the epilogue :D

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	20. Chapter 20

Merry Christmas everyone! And for my Jewish friends…happy end of Hanukkah... yes that makes sense…Well I hope you had a super awesome Hanukkah and Santa-licious Christmas :) This is the last part of LLatPoH. It was originally two parts but I decided to combine them. I'll post the epilogue either later today if you're really lucky or tomorrow. Depends on the number of reviews.

The Addie freaking out at Mer – I may have said this before but it was so fun to write because it had to be Addie but also freaking out Addie lol.

TeamMeredith007 – SWEEEEEET. (If you didn't see her review MerDer's baby is named Emily Cristina and TeamMeredith007's name is Emily Christine.)

Squeak4ever – I'm glad you liked Bang's wedding :)

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Meredith had been sent on maternity leave. That wasn't fun for anyone, especially surgical residents. Meredith knew there wouldn't be much for her to do. Everyone else was working the majority of the time. She could bake. Well, learn to bake. She could knit more without being celibate. One thing Meredith knew for sure was that the house would be very clean.

Pushing the shopping cart down the aisle Meredith heard a familiar voice call her name.

"Meredith?"

She turned around, one hand automatically on her belly. "Finn, hi."

"How are you?" he asked.

"Huge," she replied with a smile.

He smiled back, "I can see that. When are you due?"

"Three weeks. I'm on maternity leave, which gets really boring. I came out to do some craving shopping," she told him, "Derek isn't going to like this. Since I went on leave he's gone into super overprotective daddy mode. That is just below psycho overprotective so I haven't had to kill him yet."

Finn chuckled and noticed the engagement ring sparkling in the floruescent light of the supermarket. "You're engaged?"

"Yeah," she replied, "He proposed almost four months ago."

"Wow, congratulations."

"Thanks. Do you remember Addison?" she asked.

He nodded, "I do."

"She's pregnant too. Almost three months now. She and Mark are thrilled."

"That's wonderful. I'm really happy for you all," he told her sincerely, "How is Tiki doing?"

"Tiki is great. She's getting big and Dr. Zebert says she is growing normally for a kitten."

"Good. I have to get going but it was nice seeing you."

"You too."

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Meredith took her bananas, pickles and coffee ice cream up to her bedroom and started up her laptop, going online. She was due in a week and was very, very bored. Tiki took up residence between Meredith's legs and purred happily.

SoccerMom: Meredith!

SurgicalMer: Hi Sarah.

SoccerMom: How are you and my niece?

SurgicalMer: She's sleeping for the time being and I'm fine. Actually…huge and I feel like a beached whale but fine.

SoccerMom: Lol. So have you gone nuts yet with boredom?

SurgicalMer: Almost. I've cleaned everything I can, I've done laundry.

SurgicalMer: I'm nesting.

SoccerMom: Sounds like it.

SurgicalMer: So how are the kids reacting to Addison's news?

SoccerMom: They're thrilled. Two new cousins now!

SurgicalMer: I loved being pregnant for the most part but now I just want it to be over with.

SurgicalMer: My back is killing me today.

SoccerMom: I know the feeling. And once you see that little baby everything that you went though – its so worth it.

SurgicalMer:  I can't wait until your house is done!

SoccerMom: Yes! Then we can come there for Christmas!

SurgicalMer: Please say you're kidding.

SoccerMom: I am. Lol. But I can't wait to see it. You're still getting married there right?

SurgicalMer: Yes.

Cristina and Izzie let themselves in and went up to Meredith's room. They got off work early and decided to hang out with Meredith.

SurgicalMer: Sarah, I'll talk to you later. My friends came over to entertain me. Lol I feel like a little kid.

SoccerMom: Lol. Have fun.

Meredith put her laptop away and sat up.

"I have to pee before we do anything." Meredith told them. As she got up she felt a sensation she had never felt before and froze.

"Mer? You ok?"

"I think my water just broke."

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Izzie and Cristina helped Meredith down the stairs and to Izzie's car.

"You have to call Derek and Addison. Or page them. Just tell them!"

"We will, Mer," Cristina told her.

"How long have you been having contractions?" Izzie asked as she began the drive to the hospital.

"I didn't know I was but my back was hurting all day but nowwwwwwww," she rubbed her stomach as the contraction surged, "Oh god I'm defiantly having contractions."

Izzie made it to the hospital in record time all the while Cristina was helping Meredith breath. They got a wheelchair and pushed Meredith to the maternity floor.

"Did you page Addison and Derek?" Meredith asked, breathing.

"Yes."

Both people Meredith wanted to see were waiting on the maternity floor. Meredith pointed at Derek. "You! I hate your boy penis!"

Addison chuckled and took Meredith to a room. She got her all set up and changed into a gown. She looked her up to a fetal monitor and checked her dilation.

"You're almost completely dilated. Meredith, how long have you been having contractions?" Addison asked, excited, amazed and yet professionally calm.

"I don't know," Meredith replied, "My back was hurting all day but the pain didn't move to the front until my water broke about twenty minutes ago."

"The contractions are about eight minutes apart," Cristina told her.

Derek held Meredith's hand as another contraction hit.

"Addison, she's a week early," Meredith told her.

"I know. It's ok. A week is fine," Addison reassured her, "Did you want any drugs?"

"I'm probably crazy but no," Meredith told her, "I'll have drugs with the next one."

"Next one?" Derek asked, brushing a piece of hair back from her face.

"Yes. But you are not touching me for a very, very long time."

He smiled, "I can live with that."

Two hours later

Meredith was in full, hard labor. Cristina was assisting Addison per Meredith's request and Derek was standing at Meredith's side holding her hand – or rather getting his hand squeezed as she pushed and being supportive.

"You're almost there, Meredith," Addison told her.

"This was a bad idea!" Meredith replied, "Addison, have the drugs when you have your baby. Have the drugs!"

"I'll be sure to do that," Addison replied, "I need you to push on the next contraction."

Meredith pushed, grunting, moaning, screaming, and cursing Derek.

"You're doing great, Mer," Derek told her.

"Ok, Mer," Addison said, "Push again."

Meredith pushed yelling, "I HATE BOY PENISES!"

"I knew you would curse the boy penises," Cristina said, not loud enough for Meredith to hear – she didn't want to die, but just to say it.

"Great, Meredith. I can just see her head. Push!"

Meredith did as Addison told her once again. "Ok great! Your baby has dark hair like her daddy."

Meredith fell back against the pillows panting. Derek wiped her forehead with a cool cloth.

"You're doing so well, Meredith," he told her.

She looked at him, "I really hate you right now."

"I know," he smiled, "And I love you."

"Meredith I need you to push again, you're almost done," Addison told her.

Meredith sat forward a little and pushed as hard as she could all through the next contraction, Addison praised her and told her the head was out but Meredith felt like she was going to die.

"Ok Meredith the last one."

"I can't," she cried.

"Yes you can," Derek told her, "One last push and you'll be done and you can see Emily."

Meredith looked into Derek's eyes and saw love, devotion, faith.

"Come on, Mer. One more!" Addison said.

Gathering the rest of her strength and holding tightly onto Derek's hand she pushed and pushed and pushed and finally heard her baby cry. Feeling that relief she collapsed back onto the bed panting and crying.

"It's a girl," Addison announced routinely, setting her on Meredith's stomach and cleaning her off, "Derek do you want to cut the cord?"

"Yeah," he replied overcome with pride for Meredith and love for his new daughter. He cut the umbilical cord and Addison took her briefly to clean her off and wrap her up before giving her back to Meredith.

"What's her name?" Addison asked as she started to clean up and for the birth certificate the nurse had to fill out.

"Emily Cristina Shepherd," Meredith told the others in the room.

"Seriously?" Cristina asked with a smile.

"Seriously," Derek replied.

Cristina actually hugged Meredith, "I'm going to tell the others about her. 8 pounds, 7 ounces," she smiled before leaving to relay all the information to their friends.

Meredith marveled at the little life in her arms. She looked up at Derek with a huge smiled.

"Derek, she's beautiful."

"Just like you," he replied, kissing her then his daughter's cheek.

Meredith lightly ran her fingers over her baby's head, "she has so much hair. She looks like you."

"She does," he agreed.

"I love you," Meredith told him.

"I love you, too," he replied, "I'm so proud of you."

The baby opened her blue eyes and looked at her mother. Meredith and Derek looked back, amazed at their daughter.

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I hope you liked it and the more reviews I get the faster the epilogue gets put up. The fast the epilogue gets up the faster my cute little sequel gets put up lo.

Read, love, review, repeat


	21. Epilogue

I want to thank you all for your wonderful reviews and your continuing support of this freakin long fic (65 pages in word). I also want to thank my friends Sara (OnTheSparrow'sWing) and Kristi for helping me and reading what I had written as I was writing it lol.

8 review on Christmas I think is pretty good sooo you get the epilogue today too!

For those of you who didn't remember, the IM convo from the last chapter – Mer was talking to Sarah who is one of Derek's sisters.

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Derek stood on his deck and looked around at everyone in his back yard. A lot had changed in five years. For one all the interns were at the end of their residency and had specialties. Cristina went into cardiothoracic; George decided to go with general surgery. Meredith, or course, went with neuro. Alex and Izzie both took after Addison and went into OB/GYN.

Three months after Emily was born he and Meredith got married, Richard gave Meredith away. Hannah had been invited to the wedding as promised and she and Derek's niece Kaylie became really good friends.

Mark and Addison ended up having twins - a boy and a girl named Aiden Michael and Megan Elizabeth Sloan who are now four years old. They both had Addison's red hair and Mark's attitude.

Addison had made it clear to Mark that she didn't want to get married – not yet anyway so they are together and just happy like that.

George, with the help of Derek and Burke, proposed to Callie when Emily was a little over a year old. They got married a couple months later and they now have a three year old daughter named Catrina Ashley O'Malley who has her mother's beautiful hair and has overcome her shyness she inherited from her father thanks to Emily's outgoing personality.

Around the time Catrina was born Meredith got pregnant with their second child Jacob Richard Shepherd. Jacob was Derek's father's name and Richard after the man who was more of a father to Meredith than Thatcher was and is like a grandfather to their children. Jake looks just like Meredith and his sister is the spitting image of Derek. A few months after Meredith found out she was pregnant with Jake Izzie discovered she was pregnant and she and Alex had a daughter – Samantha Lauren Karev – a beautiful blonde ball of energy. Alex and Izzie got married a year before Samantha was born and both Samantha and Jake are two years old now.

The youngest of the children is Cristina and Burke's one year old son named Conner Joseph Burke. Conner looks more like Cristina than Burke and much to Cristina's chagrin that little boy made her soft – only at home though. Never soft at work.

Everyone was at Derek and Meredith's house for their Emily's fifth birthday party. All of the kids and some of her friends, minus Conner, were running around playing games and exciting the dog – a one year old yellow lab named Scotch. Meredith reasoned that since the cat was named after her favorite drink, the dog should be named after Derek's – of course the kids were told it was short for Butterscotch. At the long table on the grass near the deck there was the birthday cake with Emily's name on it and presents.

Derek saw Alex, Izzie and Cristina playing with Conner on the grass. Meredith and Addison were talking with Callie at the cake/present table. Burke, George, and 'Grandpa Richard' were managing the barbeque at the other side of the deck. Mark came up and stood next to Derek and sipped his beer.

"Ever think this was how everything would end up?" Mark asked over the playful screams of the kids running around.

Meredith looked over at Derek and smiled. She had told him earlier that day that Addison told her she was pregnant again but they decided to wait a little while to tell everyone else. He smiled back the McDreamy smile.

"Nope," he took Mark's beer and drank some, "It's so much better."

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Cristina's specialty was sort of a request from Cinny72 in her review from chapter 11. Not that Cristina would do anything else but Cinny's review sparked the entire paragraph of the intern's specialties.

Look out for my sequel called Seattle Christmas. It takes place 15 years from the epilogue and it's in Emily's point of view. It will be up either tomorrow or the day after.

Read, love, review, repeat

Love, Aly


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